Santorini or Thira is an island of the Cyclades, with an area of 76 sq.km and entirely different from the other islands of the Aegean.
It was named "Pre-historic Pompeii" by Fouque, after the excavations he made at Akrotiri in the 19th century. The island itself is the doing of a tremendous eruption of Santorini's active volcano. Where we find today the insular group of Santorini, there used to be a small island, which was also born out of one of the eruptions.
The island kept expanding now and then, through these eruptions and finally took a round shape, which explains why in the ancient years it was called "Strongili" (i.e. roundshaped).
In the process, a huge eruption blasted the entire center of Strongili, whereupon all the geological materials that were blown up covered the rest of the insular group with thick layers of pumice stone.