
Santorini, officially known as Thira and formerly known as Thera, is a volcanic Greek island in the Cyclades archipelago of the Aegean Sea. Known to the Ancient Greeks as Thera, the island's volcanic eruption in 1500 BC destroyed the Minoan civilization, as it caused a tidal wave which destroyed their cities across the Aegean (most notably on Crete). Before then, its Minoan port of Akrotiri had been one of the wealthiest ports in the Mediterranean. After the eruption, the Phoenicians settled on the island for eight generations, and, in the 9th century, the Dorians settled on the island and named it after their leader, the Spartan Theras. Theran colonists established settlements in Africa such as Cyrene, and the island sided with the Spartan Peloponnesian League during the Peloponnesian War; while the Athenians captured the island late in the war, they lost it following the 405 BC Battle of Aegospotami. During the Hellenistic period, Santorini was a major base for Ptolemaic Egypt's navy, and it later came under Roman and Byzantine rule. The volcano's eruption in 727 AD frightened Emperor Leo III of Byzantium into pursuing a policy of religious iconoclasm, seeing the eruption as divine punishment for the Greeks' idolatry. By 1153, the island had been renamed to "Santorini" in honor of the island's patron saint, Saint Irene. In 1318-1331 and 1345-1360, the island was raided by the Turks, and, from 1335 to 1576, it was under Venetian rule. In 1576, it fell under Ottoman rule, and, despite having no Muslim residents, it was frequently raided by the Venetians during their wars with the Ottomans. In 1821, the island joined the patriotic cause during the Greek War of Independence despite the reservations of the local Catholic population, and it was later occupied by Italy from 1941 to 1943 and by Nazi Germany from 1943 to 1944 during World War II. During the 21st century, Santorini was a world-famous tourist destination. In 2011, Santorini had 15,550 residents.