Fira
Encyclopedia
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
Aegean
Aegean civilization
Aegean civilization is a general term for the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece around the Aegean Sea. There are three distinct but communicating and interacting geographic regions covered by this term: Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland. Crete is associated with the Minoan civilization...
island, Santorini
Santorini
Santorini , officially Thira , is an island located in the southern Aegean Sea, about southeast from Greece's mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago which bears the same name and is the remnant of a volcanic caldera...
. It is a traditional settlement. "Firá", actually, is a different pronunciation of "Thíra", the ancient name of the island itself.
Fira is a city of white-washed houses built on the edge of the 400 m high caldera
Caldera
A caldera is a cauldron-like volcanic feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption, such as the one at Yellowstone National Park in the US. They are sometimes confused with volcanic craters...
on the western edge of the semi-circular island of Thera. The two main museums of interest are the Santorini Archeological Museum, 30 m east of the cable car entrance, and the Museum of Prehistoric Thera at the southeast corner of the White Orthodox Cathedral (with the Greek name meaning Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation...
), built on the site of the Ypapanti Church, destroyed in the 1956 earthquake.
Access to Fira is mainly by roads on its eastern side, climbing from its port via the Z-shaped footpath on foot or on donkeys, or by riding the steep cable car from its lower terminal by the port. The central square of Fira is called Plateia Theotokopoulou, with a bus and taxi station, banks and pharmacies.
The narrow paths, lined with all kinds of souvenir shops, jewelry shops, and restaurants linking the upper cable car terminal and the central square, are packed with tourists during the summer seasons.
The view from Fira is magnificent, with a nice panoramic view of the 18 km long caldera
Caldera
A caldera is a cauldron-like volcanic feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption, such as the one at Yellowstone National Park in the US. They are sometimes confused with volcanic craters...
from southern Cape Akrotiri to northern Cape Ag. Nikolaos, plus the volcanic island Nea Kameni
Nea Kameni
Nea Kameni is a small uninhabited Greek island of volcanic origin located in the Aegean Sea within the flooded Santorini caldera. Nea Kameni and the neighbouring small island Palea Kameni have formed over the past two millennia by repeated eruptions of dacite lava and ash...
at the center with Thirassia Island in the distant west on blue Aegean
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
water. Big cruise ships can usually be seen anchoring in the small harbor between Nea Kameni
Nea Kameni
Nea Kameni is a small uninhabited Greek island of volcanic origin located in the Aegean Sea within the flooded Santorini caldera. Nea Kameni and the neighbouring small island Palea Kameni have formed over the past two millennia by repeated eruptions of dacite lava and ash...
and Fira.
