Santorini is an archipelago in the Aegean Sea. It is about north of Crete. The archipelago is made of five islands. The biggest of these is also called Santorini. Orther names for the archipelago, and the island are Thera or Thira. The archipelago formed around a caldera. 13.600 people live there. The island has been settled for a long time, there are archeologial sites dating to Minoan times, and to the paleolithic. The volcano erupted around 1500 BC, and may have wiped out the Minoan culture there. The island was later resettled. 