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Santorini
The legend of Atlantis has been presented to us by Plato and seems to be half history half imagination. Very often the destruction of Thera is identified with the sinking of mythical Atlantis. About 3.000 B.C the island was inhabited by people who called it Strongyle (that means "round"). The real fact of the submergence of Santorini or other Islands in Aegean Sea during an eruption of the volcano, together with the imagination or wish for a Perfect City may explain the legend. The legend, which Plato presented in his dialogues Timaios and Kritias, is a story, which was told to Kritias by his great-grandfather, who had heard it from his father, Dropidas and he from the sagacious legislator Solon. According to the story Atlantis was an extensive insular continent whose inhabitants had developed an exceptionally high standard of civilization. The unique power of the kings of Atlantis was not only confined to their own continent but extended to the surrounding islands and controlled part of Libya, as far as Egypt, as well as part of Europe up to Tyrrhenia (Northern Italy).
The volcano first manifested itself about 80.000 years or so ago. This first eruption was terrific. Apart from the ash, the crater expelled other, heavier substances, which covered the surface of the sea and joined with the exciting islets to form an approximately circular island with a diameter of 14 to 15 kilometers.
The volcano erupted for a second time, equally destructively in 1450
B.C., wiping out all the life on the Island and sinking the greater
part of Strongyle beneath the waves. One of the greatest and most cosmopolitan harbours of the Mediterranean during the first half of the second millennium, Akrotiri was berried under a thick mantle of ash when the volcano erupted in about 1.600 BC. The island was inhabited at around 3200 B.C. when the Cretes showed up. The influence of the Minoan culture on the island was obvious when excavations started on Akrotiri and found a whole village with houses decorated with wall paintings similar to those found in the Minoan palace in Crete. Before the volcano started its destructive work the island was called Stroggili, from its shape. However, in 1500 B.C. something happened that completely changed the story of the ancient world. It was the explosion of the volcano which was in the center of the island and the greater part sunk. The tidal wave which was caused by the explosion, estimated at around 100m high, destroyed the palace of Knossos and did a lot of damage at the north coast of Crete.
1296 AD. The Byzantine Likarios liberated Santorini along with the islands of Amorgos, Seriphos, Kea, Ios, Siphnos and Pholegandros.. However the freedom was very short and before the year was out the Barozzis had returned to Santorini. During the next years the history of the island is the history of the rivalries between local lords and the Duke of Naxos or disputes between the latter and the Turks.
1570 or 1573 AD. Eruption of the volcano. Today an Island which can be described as paradise for tourists and archaeologists.
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Since
the days of Plato to the present day many attempts have been made to
interpret the myth or even to rediscover Atlantis. Thousands of
studies and articles have been written on this subject. The fact is
that Plato, through the myth, presented to his fellow-citizens a
paradigm of an ideally organized state which flowered and prospered
for as long as men respected and enforced the laws and worshipped
the gods who had given them the legislation. However, when the men
became arrogant and ceased to obey the laws of their state the wrath
of the Gods was such that they were condemned to total destruction.
Nevertheless, Atlantis can be more than true, at least within our
imagination. It is believed that Atlantis was very close to
Santorini. 
A
brief history is as follows:-- RAM UNIVERSAL STUDIOS -