Archaeologists have determined that the Minoan civilization, which was precursor to Mycenaean civilization arose on the island of Crete in the Bronze Age era, went through a period of flowering, and then died suddenly in the middle of the second millennium BC. In I860 in building the Suez Canal for the manufacture of stone blocks and cement using volcanic material called pumice, brought from the island Tire. Shortly after this there evidence that the catastrophic explosion of a volcano on the dash that caused the earthquake, huge waves off the sky and clouds of ash is related to the sudden decline of the Minoan civilization. Soon, the Greek scholars began to compare the sad fate of Tira to the fate of Atlantis. 
The disaster at the dash, which originally dated 1250 year before Christ, aroused the interest of scientists and other specialists, such as bibleistov, because the effects of a powerful explosion could reach Egypt, which explains at least part of the scourge, which according to the Bible hit the Egyptians before the Exodus (see . map, Fig. 19). 
Thus, the Greek expedition to the places of "Chronicles of mankind" and included the island of Santorini, which formerly called Tira. Whatever the case, as in the range of my interests if you do not reach Atlantis, the story of Exodus. 
To get to Santorini (Thiru) from mainland Greece or from the island of Crete is not no trouble - just to sit on the ferry, which crosses the maritime area once a week. We decided to save time on the sea journey to see as much as possible, and used the aircraft, which flies to the island more, but (as it turned out later) is less regular. As a result, we not only reduce travel time, but also had the opportunity to look at the island with a bird's-eye view. 
Apart from the official name of Santorini (in honor of its patron, St. Irene), has many other names: Callisto, meaning "beautiful island" or Strongile, or "Round". These names reflect the extraordinary beauty of the island and its right round. Despite the fact that today the island has only a small part, it is not hard to imagine - when looking from the side of the aircraft, from the top of the mountain or the road, which runs along the perimeter of the lagoon - how he looked before.