1 Prof. Jones: {on the deck of the ship bound for Santorini} You know, some years ago on Santorini I stopped a plot by some ruthless archaeologists.
2 Prof. Jones: They tried to smuggle away a pair of ancient Minoan religious statues. When I discovered their plan, I knew I had to act.
3 Sallah: I can see how the potential loss of those artefacts would have weighed heavily on your mind, Professor.
4 Prof. Jones: Yes. It was two Thera bulls to contemplate!

Santorini is actually a small group of five islands, being the remnants of the volcanic island that exploded around 1600 BC. They form a broken ring around the crater of the volcano. The largest island is Thera, which contains several towns. Then comes Therasia, which holds just one town. The remaining three islands are uninhabited: Aspronisi is a tiny speck in the largest channel between Thera and Therasia; Palea Kameni is a small island near the middle of the crater; and Nea Kameni is in the centre of the crater, being a newly formed island that broke the surface only in 1704 when new volcanic activity pushed it up from the sea.

---

2014-01-02 Rerun commentary: The joke in this strip is a shameless retread of one of my favourite gags, seen in the Space theme in strip #350.

I would link to a Wikipedia article on Thera itself, but that ends up being merely a redirect to the article on the entirety of Santorini.

Of further interest is that Santorini is one of the Decade Volcanoes, a selected list of 16 major volcanoes around the world which are the subject of intense study because of their combination of historically destructive eruptions, current activity and potential for eruption, and proximity to large human population centres.