Hiking Skaros on the Santorini Caldera

Seen from all over the caldera of Santorini, Skaros is the huge rock formation that juts out from Santorini’s caldera and has an imposing unobstructed 360 degree view of the entire caldera. Appearing like a vertical conical rock peninsula, Skaros is one of the must see sites for visitors to Santorini. While it looks like bare rock worn by the Aegean wind and thousands of years of rain, Skaros has a lot of history. The Venetians, who rules Santorini for hundreds of years, built a kasteli, or fortress, on Skaros in the 15th century to protect the island from the maurading pirates who roamed the Aegean Sea. While the fortress was eventually destroyed, unknown to many who visit Santorini, you can hike Skaros and visit among other things, a greek Orthodox Theoskepasti church with an unobstructed view of the caldera as below.

You start the hike from Imerovigli – you can take the Santorini bus or park your car in the parking lots near the main road. From the walking paths of Imerovigli, the hike is about 0.64 kilometers to the church on Skaros. You can hike it in about 30 minutes. Sneakers or good hiking shoes are a must as the path is bare rock at some points and once on the rock you can further climb other crevices for more unobstructed views. This isn’t an easy hike but its not challenging either – the big challenge is the huge number of stairs you’ll need to climb up Skaros – 300 stairs.

The beginning of the hike has you climbing up and down hundreds of stairs. While its not too steep, beware of the loose rocks and steps that can surprise you.

Looking down towards the azure waters of the Aegean Sea. This is a several hundred foot drop from Skaros, but don’t worry, you won’t fall down the path – just make sure you don’t hike this drunk.

A view of the stairs leading down to Skaros rock from the walkway paths of Imerovigli. Bring a bottle of water, comfortable shoes, a hat and sunblock as there isn’t any room for cover if you want to take a break from the hike until you get to the church.

After a few last steps, you’ve reached the top of Skaros and from here you can see the remains of the Venetian fortress and Santorini administrative buildings that destroyed during massive earthquakes in the 1950s in Santorini. From this view, you’re looking at the roadway to Oia.

You’re coming to Skaros for views you can’t see from the Santorini caldera rim, such as this view of how dramatic the construction is on the caldera Santorini in Imerovigli.

Theoskepasti Church on Skaros. You’ve reached one of the most magnificent views that can be seen from anywhere on Santorini’s caldera.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 7th, 2010 at 5:26 am and is filed under Imerovigli, Photos Santorini Caldera, Santorini, Santorini Caldera, Santorini Caldera Sights, Skaros. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.