Home life in Hellas, Greece and the Greeks - eBooks4Greeks.gr

108 HOME LIFE IN HELLASthe rest of the Latins ever since. When afterwards,at Santorin, we saw Scaros, the ruinedstronghold, an eyrie on theedge of a precipice,built by the first Barozzi, who came with theFourth Crusade, we thought of his descendant,our good friend at Naxos, and the strangeromance of a later age interwoven with theseJEgean isles, apart from their ancient glory. Butthis brings us to Santorin.SANTORINThe lip of a submerged crater, still active—thatis the island of Santorin. A crescent-shaped massof volcanic matter, it tapers to a point at eachend, and isbarely three miles wide in the middle.It is eighteen miles long on the outer arc, twelveon the inner. The approach to Santorin is asight never forgotten. The northern tip of thecrescent falls to the sea on each side in sheercliffs of burnt tufa, crimson in hue. At the topis a layer of white, like the sugared crust on acut bridecake. When that white crust resolvesitself into houses we rub our eyes. Surely it issome dream city, this eyrie of domes and dwellings,roof above roof, crowding the narrowsummit of the razor-edged promontory, clinginglike martins' nests to the cornice of the precipice.Such is the first view of Epanomeria, the secondtown of Santorin. We round the point, openingup the inner side of the crescent. About half-