The story of Akrotiri

Under the protective roof at Akrotiri lies a Cycladic Bronze Age town that the volcano buried and, in doing so, preserved. People lived here as early as the fifth millennium BCE, in a small fishing and farming village. Sitting on the sailing route between Cyprus and Minoan Crete, it grew into a centre for processing copper, with paved streets, an extensive drainage system and buildings of up to three storeys.

Then, in the sixteenth century BC, the Theran eruption covered it in volcanic ash; radiocarbon dating places the event most probably between 1620 and 1530 BC. Like Pompeii after it, the town was remarkably well preserved, frescoes and all. Spyridon Marinatos began the modern excavation in 1967, and within a few hours the buried city began to appear.

Only one gold object has been found, and no unburied human remains, which suggests an orderly evacuation with little or no loss of life. Walk the ancient streets and imagine the day they left.