Santorini consistently ranks as one of the top must-see destinations in the world, and with good reason. The Minoa eruption of Thera in 1628 B.C. was one of the largest in human history with its ash causing a three-year global winter and leaving behind a dramatic collapsed caldera with a seven-mile diameter. Villages of stunning beauty are perched on steep cliffs above the caldera below, and the sophisticated Bronze Age city of Akrotiri, which was buried by ash from the eruption, is one of the most fascinating and important archaeological excavations in the world today.