High on Mesa Vouno, above Santorini’s southeastern coast, Ancient Thera occupies a long ridge with broad views over the Aegean. The site is not the island’s prehistoric settlement at Akrotiri, but a later city whose archaeological record begins in the eighth century BCE. According to the Cyclades Ephorate of Antiquities, the town remained inhabited at least into the ninth century CE, making its ruins a record of many centuries of change rather than one short-lived moment.
The location shaped the city. Its main road followed the spine of the ridge, while the steep, wind-exposed edges held places of worship and the more sheltered central stretch accommodated homes and public life. Archaeologists have uncovered sanctuaries, temples, an agora, public buildings, a theatre, shops and residential quarters, together with a road network that included drainage. The Ephorate says the preserved urban form largely reflects the city as it stood in Hellenistic and Roman times.
