- Illegal constructions persist across Santorini, ignoring safety regulations and exploiting unstable grounds.
- The island’s unique topography allows clandestine work to go unnoticed, even in restricted zones.
- Seismologist Akis Tselentis raises alarm over the growing disregard for Santorini’s seismic vulnerabilities.
- Authorities appear indifferent, citing absurd reasons for inaction amid escalating risks.
- Contractors prioritize profits over safety, endangering lives in the shadow of active volcanoes.
With its striking caldera and surreal cliffs, Santorini tells an ancient story of volcanic fury. Yet, even as its very land trembles with seismic reminders, the island faces another silent assault—illegal construction. Against relentless activity beneath the earth’s surface, above-ground actions are no less perilous. Seismologist Akis Tselentis delivered a stark message, using social media to confront those complicit in reshaping Santorini’s fragile identity.
Despite strict prohibition, building in dangerous zones goes unchecked. Whether clouded by indifference or silence, the authorities turn a blind eye. Contractors carve into unstable ground, ignoring its geological fragility, manipulating Santorini’s unique morphology to mask their actions.
Profits Before People: The Price of Turning a Blind Eye
The warning hits hard. Active volcanoes loom over the island, ensuring that Santorini remains a hotspot for seismic activity. Memory lingers: the catastrophic 1956 earthquake, measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale, sent 25-meter waves crashing ashore. Yet history serves as no deterrent. For some, profits blind them to the risks. Invisible labour transforms into visible threats, carving deeper into the volcanic earth.
Photographs capture the reality: building tools abandoned beneath the precarious cliffs of the caldera, waiting for their next illicit use. Tselentis spares no words; he highlights the inflated costs and greed-driven decisions behind these dangerous expansions. Workers charge double for venturing into forbidden zones, where even simple construction material inflates outrageously—prices that climb to 600-700 euros per cubic yard of concrete, all for quick gains.
Even the absurd deflection by local authorities fails to mask their negligence. “Seismic activity prevents us from conducting inspections,” they claim—a defence riddled with contradictions. These violations predate increased earthquakes, casting doubt on such excuses. What’s left is silence, complicity, and a defiant disregard for safety in one of Greece’s most iconic destinations.
Will the price finally prove too costly? Santorini’s beauty hides an unsettling truth: a landscape shaped by nature is now dangerously reshaped by greed. The view below holds both wonder and warning for visitors standing atop its sunlit cliffs. A paradise under threat.
