Hot Springs Palea Kameni
Rust-orange volcanic sea pools warmed by geothermal vents inside a collapsed caldera.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Hot Springs of Palea Kameni in Santorini starts with the warning every boat captain gives before the jump: the rust-orange water looks filthy but isn't. It traces where that color and warmth actually come from, and reaches back to the eruption that tore the island apart around 1630 BC, one of the most violent Earth has recorded in the last four thousand years. Along the way it follows the Bronze Age town of Akrotiri, buried whole in that catastrophe, and the theory linking its disappearance to Plato's Atlantis.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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Akrotiri
Bronze Age port town buried whole under ash, its streets, frescoes and multistory houses left eerily intact.