South Cyclades

The southern Cyclades scatter across the Aegean north of Crete. At their edge, the islands of Santorini surround a flooded volcanic caldera, formed by a great eruption in the Bronze Age. The buried port of Akrotiri preserves buildings and wall paintings from a community that exchanged goods with Crete and lands farther east. After the Fourth Crusade, much of the Cyclades became part of the Latin Duchy of the Archipelago, which passed under Ottoman authority in the 16th century.