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Santorini was named by the Latin Empire in the thirteenth century, and is a reference to Saint Irene, from the name of the old cathedral in the village of Perissa - the name Santorini is a contraction of the name Santa Irini. Before then, it was known as Kalliste ("the most beautiful one"), Strongyle ("the circular one"), or Thera. The name Thera was revived in the nineteenth century as the official name of the island and its main city, but the colloquial name Santorini is still in popular use. During the Ottoman Empire's domination of the Aegean Sea, the Turkish exonym for the island was "Santurin" or "Santoron".

number of i sl ands	5
m ain i s land	Thira
entire country area	92,5 km²
capital	Fira
population	17.430

Santorini is a natural phenomenon of a special kind. Once a green and fertile island in the middle of an island ring, Santorini is perhaps "the lost city of Atlantis", reported by Plato. The big catastrophe about 3,600 years ago, as the island volcano Thera has exploded, has changed the face of the landscape permanently.

(Sources: wikipedia.org 2016; www.thira.gr 2016, Google Maps 2016)