Andrew Schulz

And this place right here, the center of the Mediterranean, obviously, the center of all the trade routes, they were a seafaring empire

And they were filthy, filthy, filthy rich.

From about the years, let's say 2000 BC, maybe definitely before that, because they were interacting with the Egyptians during the time that the Egyptians were building the pyramids.

These guys are here.

But let's say from the earliest times, maybe like 2500 BC, the very, very, very earliest times, all the way to...

let's say like 1450 BC, 1400 BC.

So they've got this maybe a 600, 800 year period where they're just the kings of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Well, they had this little island north of that.

And in ancient times, the island is called Thera.

In modern day times, it's called Santorini.

I don't know if you guys have ever been.

Of course.

Um, so there are ruins on Santorini and it's a city called Acrotiri and Acrotiri was one of the most elaborate and wealthy cities throughout all of the Minoan world.

Um, it was where it was kind of like Pompeii, like Pompeii was a, was a, a vacation retreat for the rich people of Rome to go and gamble and have sex and party.

And if you lived in Pompeii, you were super wealthy, right?

Well, Acrotiri was very, very similar to that.

It was the

the wealthiest people of Minoan society are living there.

Well, about the year 1600 BC,

the fourth largest volcanic eruption in the history of the entire planet erupted out of the island of Santorini and blackened the skies of the Aegean Sea and the nearby Mediterranean for days at a time.