Baxedes beach

This guide to Baxedes beach on Santorini's quiet north coast starts with its name, Baxedes, from the Turkish word for garden, and the farmers of Oia who once grew split peas, melons and tough tomatoes on ground that needed no watering. It explains what lies underfoot now instead of soil: black, glassy volcanic grit and pebbles that hold almost no water and turn scorching by midday. Two pale volcanic cliffs pinch the beach into a narrow corridor, in places barely twenty meters wide, though it runs more than a kilometer along the coast.