This is a top attraction of the island that many tourists usually miss. The most beautiful and most preserved settlements of Santorini are not that visible. That's not the case in most Cyclades islands, but in Santorini those settlements were built in the banks of riverbeds; those locations offered protection from the pirates invasions, and, thus had to be somehow invisible. Nice examples are the settlements of Vothonas , Megalochori and Karterados ;