Thira Santorini, Greece

Fira: Between the Heights and the Depths of Atlantis


a twilight thira
Thira's hanging houses at nightfall.
Down to 2
Casal descends the staircase that connects the top of Thira to the bottom of the city.
in caravan
Donkey taxi driver leads a caravan of animals to the top of Thira.
Donkey Taxi
Donkey taxi from Thira parked on a corner of the staircase that leads to the top of the capital.
Donkey-Taxi Square
Donkey taxis parked on the steps that connect Porto Velho to the top of Thira.
Thira Homes, Hotels & More
Thira's Cycladic architectural style houses.
The back of Thira
The old port of Thira, on the seabed of the capital.
The religious dome of Thira
The religious summit of the houses of Thira, the capital of Santorini.
Terrace on top of the boiler
Visitors enjoy the peace of Thira on a terrace overlooking the caldera of Santorini.
Thira Fund
The old port of Thira, seen from the top of the capital of Santorini.
Santorini Video
Visitor from Thira shows the scene of Santorini around a family member during a video call.
Volkan Thira
Volkan cinema panel with the boiler of the island-volcano Thira in the background.
Contemplation
Tourists admire the view from the top of the main staircase that serves Thira.
Thira, almost night
White house of Thira highlighted on top of the caldera of the homonymous island-volcano.
Around 1500 BC a devastating eruption sank much of the volcano-island Fira into the Aegean Sea and led to the collapse of the Minoan civilization, referred to over and over again as Atlantis. Whatever the past, 3500 years later, Thira, the city of the same name, is as real as it is mythical.

On the second morning that we spent anchored in Santorini, we recovered the tour of the island through the heart of the matter. A support vessel of the “Celestyal Crystal” takes us to the old port at the foot of the massive slope on which Fira hung.

There, we boarded a traditional wooden boat about to set sail for Nea Kameni. There we disembark, eager for an enriching exploration of the lava core of what was once the caldera of the great Fira volcano.

We reached the smoking summit of Kameni, followed the guide's scientific and historical explanations, and enjoyed the fascinating scenery of the strait that separated Nea Kameni from Paleo Kameni.

We return to the wooden boat and go around it to Athinios, the modern and constantly bustling port that welcomes ferries from other parts of the Aegean.

From there, to those by the cliffs above, we inaugurate a busy road itinerary with stops at Red Beach and the archeological station of Akrotiri, which we will approach with due attention. Later in the afternoon, the driver drops us off at the entrance to Fira.

The Evening Entry by the Funds of Fira

The overcrowded neighbor Oia could even continue to claim Santorini's photographic prominence and stardom in general. Still, we couldn't ignore Fira. After all, this was the capital and the largest city on the island.

A slope takes us from the vicinity of the bus terminal, up the streets, to the Nomikou M. path. When we reach this walled edge, we can hardly believe the panorama that lies ahead and around.

Tourists admire the houses of Thira, Santorini, Greece

Tourists admire the view from the top of the main staircase that serves Fira.

A cascade of white houses, terraces, towers, cupolas, balconies and matching Cycladic architectural elements spreads along the sloping top of the slope, to a threshold with its crazy feel that gravity and erosion continue to tolerate, 260m above at the sea level.

Below are the jagged, jagged ravines of the old boiler. They unfold on a palette of browns, greens and ocher that smooth the transition to the oil blue of the Aegean below, where the “Celestyal Crystal".

As is supposed in a Christian island and city, the churches crown the houses. The Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral stands out, seat of the diocese of Fira, Amorgos and das Ilhas, certainly one of the sanctuaries with the best views on the face of the Earth.

And, above where we looked, the yellow Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Santorini's main Catholic church, no less gifted in terms of panoramas.

Religious summit of Thira, Santorini, Greece

The religious summit of the houses of Fira, the capital of Santorini.

In a single contemplative moment, we were blessed with the privilege of exploring and living a city on an island like that, without dispute, the most eccentric of the vast Hellenic territory, as dictated by the geological events that disemboweled it.

Nomikou M. and Ipapantis. Two of the Paths with the Best Views of the Mediterranean

We repeated the up and down of Nomikou M. and Ipapantis that continued southwards, a pilgrimage that tired us but the longer we continued, the more divine it confirmed.

From these veins bordering the city, we admire hundreds of other souls in similar delight. Couples in love sitting on floating terraces.

Groups of friends on vacation who sighed at the sumptuousness of the landscapes, installed in other equally or more surreal seats: the one in the Volkan Cinema at the Nomikos Cultural Center, adorned with posters announcing a cinematic program around the Hellenic theme: “Greeks turn to marry” a 2002 romantic comedy starring Tom Hanks.

And despite being filmed largely in Vis, Croatia, the musical “Mamma Mia".

Volkan Cinema, Thira, Santorini, Greece

Volkan cinema panel with the caldera of the island-volcano Fira in the background.

It often happens to those who visit Fira on the ever-hurried cruises to stay on the upper levels of the island and the villages. In the middle of June, when the days are the longest, we found ourselves with time for incursions into the lower layers of the capital.

The Uneven Accesses to the Heights of Fira

Three ways of going up from Porto Velho to its heights coexist in Fira: the easiest one, the cable car, which provides a linear 3-minute journey every half hour or every 20 minutes, depending on the season. .

A cement staircase fulfills the same connection in a zigzag version made of 587 demanding steps. Anyone who wants to save the cost of the cable car goes up on foot.

The third alternative, that of the city donkey taxis, has a much higher cost than the cable car.

Donkey taxis in Thira, Santorini, Greece

Donkey taxi driver leads a caravan of animals to the top of Fira.

For, with or without intention, it happens that whoever walks the long staircase meets the donkey caravans. Aware of the traditional origins of the means of transport, we started by positioning ourselves in strategic places to photograph them in motion.

As is often the case, we wanted more. We get into conversation with their owners and drivers, ask us to photograph them more carefully. Without realizing either how or why, we sparked an argument between the owners that dragged on for nearly an hour.

The Controversy Around the Burros-Taxi of Fira

It all started when the one we asked for the photo, dressed in more typical clothes, immediately refused our challenge. Another one who, unlike this one, spoke very clumsy English, tried to justify his colleague. At first, it seemed to us that he wanted to convey that if we wanted to photograph him, we had to hire his services.

We spent a moment sitting down and telling us what was happening. We soon found out that the problem was different: “you come here to take photographs and take the images to publish, right? explained to us.

"And then they make it out, I don't know how many articles they foist on people that animals are enslaved, victims of abuse and things like that."

Donkey in Thira, Santorini, Greece

Donkey taxi from Fira parked on a corner of the staircase that leads to the top of the capital.

Truth be told, we hadn't approached them with such intent. In any case, in an era of sensationalism and social networks in which everything turns into scandal and exaggeration, animal rights defenders had denounced the systematic exploitation of donkeys for unnecessary transport taking into account the existence of the staircase and the good. cheaper cable car.

They alerted the world, in particular, to the violence of animals carrying obese tourists on a route, despite the zigzag route, which is quite steep, just to live a so-called picturesque experience.

However, the controversy stirred up the traditional harmony and professionalism in which donkey owners used to operate, who even have an online site with all the information, itineraries, prices and even the possibility of making reservations and leaving deposits.

The number of passengers who supported their lives will also have decreased significantly.

The Prolific Names and Long Stories of Santorini and Fira

Fira's houses extend north to its own island outskirts of Firofistani and Imerovigli. A good half-hour on foot from the center of Fira, Imerovigli marks the highest point on the edge of the caldera, but also the extreme because it is home to the agglomeration of houses.

From there upwards, the path passes between terraced hotels, resorts and restaurants.

Then, it gives itself over to a domain that is sometimes rocky and sometimes rural and winds up to the western tip of Oia, the only village of comparable size, the only one that overshadows the urban glow of Fira and to which, one of these days, we will dedicate our own article .

Thira Buildings, Santorini, Greece

The Cycladic architectural style houses of Fira.

According to the writings of Herodotus, the island-volcano came to be called Strogyle due to its round shape. Fira (Thira, Thera) was the name later adapted by the Dorics of Sparta, in honor of their king Theras.

Even today, much more popular Santorini will have been disseminated during the Latin Empire (1204 – 1261) in force during the Crusades, as a contraction of Santa Irine, the saint who had a chapel in her honor in the area of ​​present day Perissa and why the Venetian colonists from the Aegean they got used to treating the island.

Of these names, at a certain geological moment from 1500 BC onwards, Strogyle no longer made sense.

The Destroying and Disruptive Eruption of the Fira Volcano Island

The volcano-island entered a relatively long eruptive process that would have allowed the inhabitants to take refuge on other islands. In this process, the great explosion ended up with a brutal power, believed to be many times superior to the famous explosion of the indonesian volcano of Krakatoa.

While it has cleared a 20km crater2, the Fira volcano collapsed a crater over 80km2.

Some theories argue that Santorini's current configuration was the result of a sequence of geological events precipitated by the eruption: first, the collapse of the core.

Couple in Thira, Santorini, Greece

Couple goes down the staircase that connects the top of Fira to the back of the city.

Then, the spread of this reduction until the opening of a northwest channel that allowed the invasion of the sea. Soon, the intense erosion caused by this invasion that ended up making almost the entire western section of the caldera disappear, but saw the emergence of the central island of the volcano of Kameni.

Akrotiri and the Ruined Legacy of the Eruption

A little over eleven kilometers south of the capital Fira, at the bottom of the “great croissant” on which Santorini now rests, we find Akrotiri.

There, we were dazzled by the complex of ruins that, since 1967, archaeologists have unearthed under a great layer of volcanic ash and revealed to the world.

The collapse of the then Minoan Akrotiri took place without the human drama of Pompeii, where the inhabitants found themselves surprised by an inexorable pyroclastic flow during their sleep.

In Akrotiri, no jewels, valuables, much less skeletons, human bones or fossilized bodies were found. The ashes preserved frescoes, pots and many other artifacts and utensils.

This post-eruption reality allowed us to conclude that the inhabitants of Akrotiri and other parts of Santorini will have had time to take refuge in neighboring islands, probably in Crete, the mother island of the Minoan civilization.

In 360 BC, in his work “Dialogues”, Plato makes Critias approach and reveal to Timateus details of a lost city situated in a certain radius of Athens and which Athens came to defeat.

Several scholars have agreed that Atlantis was the Minoan civilization that controlled Thera, Crete, and other surrounding islands.

Thira, Santorini, Greece

White house of Fira highlighted on top of the caldera of the homonymous island-volcano.

This civilization proliferated and evolved precisely until the cataclysmic eruption of the volcano and the overwhelming tidal wave that followed.

Certain scientists estimate that the waves generated measured up to 60 meters. With such a dimension, whether treated by Minoan or by Atlantis, it won't be surprising that they have sunk and ruined it forever.

 

HOW TO VISIT:

CELESTYAL CRUISES OPERATE CRUISE IN THE AEGEAN AND MEDITERRANEAN SEAS FROM MARCH TO NOVEMBER, FOR A START OF €539. RESERVATIONS IN www.celestyalcruises.com and by tel.: +30 2164009600.

Iraklio, CreteGreece

From Minos to Minus

We arrived in Iraklio and, as far as big cities are concerned, Greece stops there. As for history and mythology, the capital of Crete branches without end. Minos, son of Europa, had both his palace and the labyrinth in which the minotaur closed. The Arabs, the Byzantines, the Venetians and the Ottomans passed through Iraklio. The Greeks who inhabit it fail to appreciate it.
Mykonos, Greece

The Greek Island Where the World Celebrates Summer

During the 1960th century Mykonos was once just a poor island, but by XNUMX Cycladic winds of change transformed it. First, at the main gay shelter in the Mediterranean. Then, at the crowded, cosmopolitan and bohemian vanity fair that we find when we visit.
Senglea, Malta

An Overcrowded Malta

At the turn of the 8.000th century, Senglea housed 0.2 inhabitants in 2 km3.000, a European record, today, it has “only” XNUMX neighborhood Christians. It is the smallest, most overcrowded and genuine of the Maltese cities.
Valletta, Malta

An ex-Humble Amazing Capital

At the time of its foundation, the Order of Knights Hospitaller called it "the most humble". Over the centuries, the title ceased to serve him. In 2018, Valletta was the tiniest European Capital of Culture ever and one of the most steeped in history and dazzling in memory.

Istanbul, Turkey

Where East meets West, Turkey Seeks its Way

An emblematic and grandiose metropolis, Istanbul lives at a crossroads. As Turkey in general, divided between secularism and Islam, tradition and modernity, it still doesn't know which way to go

Praslin, Seychelles

 

The Eden of the Enigmatic Coco-de-Mer

For centuries, Arab and European sailors believed that the largest seed in the world, which they found on the coasts of the Indian Ocean in the shape of a woman's voluptuous hips, came from a mythical tree at the bottom of the oceans. The sensual island that always generated them left us ecstatic.
Nea Kameni, Santorini, Greece

The Volcanic Core of Santorini

About three millennia had passed since the Minoan eruption that tore apart the largest volcano island in the Aegean. The cliff-top inhabitants watched land emerge from the center of the flooded caldera. Nea Kameni, the smoking heart of Santorini, was born.
Chania to Elafonisi, Crete, Greece

A Crete-style Beach Trip

Discovering the Cretan west, we left Chania, followed the Topolia gorge and less marked gorges. A few kilometers later, we reach a Mediterranean corner of watercolor and dream, that of the island of Elafonisi and its lagoon.
Chania, Crete, Greece

Chania: In the West of Crete's History

Chania was Minoan, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Venetian and Ottoman. It got to the present Hellenic nation as the most seductive city in Crete.
Balos a Seitan Limani, Crete, Greece

The Bathing Olympus of Chania

It's not just Chania, the centuries-old polis, steeped in Mediterranean history, in the far northeast of Crete that dazzles. Refreshing it and its residents and visitors, Balos, Stavros and Seitan have three of the most exuberant coastlines in Greece.

Athens, Greece

The City That Perpetuates the Metropolis

After three and a half millennia, Athens resists and prospers. From a belligerent city-state, it became the capital of the vast Hellenic nation. Modernized and sophisticated, it preserves, in a rocky core, the legacy of its glorious Classical Era.

Spinalonga, Crete, Greece

An Island Fortress Surrendered to a Leper Colony

Ever since it was occupied by Christians and Saracens, Venetians, Ottomans and, later, Cretans and Greeks, between 1903 and 1957, the arid Spinalonga was home to a lazaretto. When we disembarked there, it was uninhabited, but thanks to its dramatic past, it was one of the most visited places in Greece.

Believers greet each other in the Bukhara region.
City
Bukhara, Uzbequistan

Among the Minarets of Old Turkestan

Situated on the ancient Silk Road, Bukhara has developed for at least two thousand years as an essential commercial, cultural and religious hub in Central Asia. It was Buddhist and then Muslim. It was part of the great Arab empire and that of Genghis Khan, the Turko-Mongol kingdoms and the Soviet Union, until it settled in the still young and peculiar Uzbekistan.
Host Wezi points out something in the distance
Beach
Cobue; Nkwichi Lodge, Mozambique

The Hidden Mozambique of the Creaking Sands

During a tour from the bottom to the top of Lake Malawi, we find ourselves on the island of Likoma, an hour by boat from Nkwichi Lodge, the solitary base of this inland coast of Mozambique. On the Mozambican side, the lake is known as Niassa. Whatever its name, there we discover some of the most stunning and unspoilt scenery in south-east Africa.
Juvenile lions on a sandy arm of the Shire River
safari
Liwonde National Park, Malawi

The Prodigious Resuscitation of Liwonde NP

For a long time, widespread neglect and widespread poaching had plagued this wildlife reserve. In 2015, African Parks stepped in. Soon, also benefiting from the abundant water of Lake Malombe and the Shire River, Liwonde National Park became one of the most vibrant and lush parks in Malawi.
Thorong La, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal, photo for posterity
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 13th - High camp a Thorong La to Muktinath, Nepal

At the height of the Annapurnas Circuit

At 5416m of altitude, the Thorong La Gorge is the great challenge and the main cause of anxiety on the itinerary. After having killed 2014 climbers in October 29, crossing it safely generates a relief worthy of double celebration.
Bertie in jalopy, Napier, New Zealand
Architecture & Design
Napier, New Zealand

Back to the 30s

Devastated by an earthquake, Napier was rebuilt in an almost ground-floor Art Deco and lives pretending to stop in the Thirties. Its visitors surrender to the Great Gatsby atmosphere that the city enacts.
Salto Angel, Rio that falls from the sky, Angel Falls, PN Canaima, Venezuela
Aventura
PN Canaima, Venezuela

Kerepakupai, Salto Angel: The River that Falls from Heaven

In 1937, Jimmy Angel landed a light aircraft on a plateau lost in the Venezuelan jungle. The American adventurer did not find gold but he conquered the baptism of the longest waterfall on the face of the Earth
Military Religious, Wailing Wall, IDF Flag Oath, Jerusalem, Israel
Ceremonies and Festivities
Jerusalem, Israel

A Festive Wailing Wall

The holiest place in Judaism is not only attended by prayers and prayers. Its ancient stones have witnessed the oath of new IDF recruits for decades and echo the euphoric screams that follow.
The Baton Rouge Capitol reflected in a reflecting pool at the State Library
Cities
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States

From the Indian Frontier to the Capital of Louisiana

During their incursion up Mississippi, the French detected a red stick that separated the territories of two native nations. From this expedition of 1723 to here, the European nations that dominated these parts followed. As history progressed, Baton Rouge became the political core of the 18th state in the United States.
Singapore Asian Capital Food, Basmati Bismi
Lunch time
Singapore

The Asian Food Capital

There were 4 ethnic groups in Singapore, each with its own culinary tradition. Added to this was the influence of thousands of immigrants and expatriates on an island with half the area of ​​London. It was the nation with the greatest gastronomic diversity in the Orient.
Parade and Pomp
Culture
Saint Petersburg, Russia

When the Russian Navy Stations in Saint Petersburg

Russia dedicates the last Sunday of July to its naval forces. On that day, a crowd visits large boats moored on the Neva River as alcohol-drenched sailors seize the city.
Reindeer Racing, Kings Cup, Inari, Finland
Sport
Inari, Finland

The Wackiest Race on the Top of the World

Finland's Lapps have been competing in the tow of their reindeer for centuries. In the final of the Kings Cup - Porokuninkuusajot - , they face each other at great speed, well above the Arctic Circle and well below zero.
Seljalandsfoss Escape
Traveling
Iceland

The Island of Fire, Ice and Waterfalls

Europe's supreme cascade rushes into Iceland. But it's not the only one. On this boreal island, with constant rain or snow and in the midst of battle between volcanoes and glaciers, endless torrents crash.
Ethnic
Pentecost Island, Vanuatu

Naghol: Bungee Jumping without Modern Touches

At Pentecost, in their late teens, young people launch themselves from a tower with only lianas tied to their ankles. Bungee cords and harnesses are inappropriate fussiness from initiation to adulthood.
portfolio, Got2Globe, Travel photography, images, best photographs, travel photos, world, Earth
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Portfolio Got2globe

The Best in the World – Got2Globe Portfolio

Rabat, Malta, Mdina, Palazzo Xara
History
Rabat XNUMX%, Malta

A Former Suburb in the Heart of Malta

If Mdina became the noble capital of the island, the Knights Hospitaller decided to sacrifice the fortification of present-day Rabat. The city outside the walls expanded. It survives as a popular and rural counterpoint to the now living museum in Mdina.
Figure at Praia do Curral, Ilhabela, Brazil
Islands
Ilhabela, Brazil

Ilhabela: After Horror, the Atlantic Beauty

Ninety percent of the preserved Atlantic Forest, idyllic waterfalls and gentle, wild beaches live up to the name. But, if we go back in time, we also reveal the horrific historical facet of Ilhabela.
Era Susi towed by dog, Oulanka, Finland
Winter White
PN Oulanka, Finland

A Slightly Lonesome Wolf

Jukka “Era-Susi” Nordman has created one of the largest packs of sled dogs in the world. He became one of Finland's most iconic characters but remains faithful to his nickname: Wilderness Wolf.
silhouette and poem, Cora coralina, Goias Velho, Brazil
Literature
Goiás Velho, Brazil

The Life and Work of a Marginal Writer

Born in Goiás, Ana Lins Bretas spent most of her life far from her castrating family and the city. Returning to its origins, it continued to portray the prejudiced mentality of the Brazilian countryside
Viewpoint Viewpoint, Alexander Selkirk, on Skin Robinson Crusoe, Chile
Nature
Robinson Crusoe Island, Chile

Alexander Selkirk: in the Skin of the True Robinson Crusoe

The main island of the Juan Fernández archipelago was home to pirates and treasures. His story was made up of adventures like that of Alexander Selkirk, the abandoned sailor who inspired Dafoe's novel
Mother Armenia Statue, Yerevan, Armenia
Autumn
Yerevan, Armenia

A Capital between East and West

Heiress of the Soviet civilization, aligned with the great Russia, Armenia allows itself to be seduced by the most democratic and sophisticated ways of Western Europe. In recent times, the two worlds have collided in the streets of your capital. From popular and political dispute, Yerevan will dictate the new course of the nation.
Tinquilco Lake in PN Huerquehue, Pucón, La Araucania, Chile
Natural Parks
Pucón, Chile

Among the Araucarias of La Araucania

At a certain latitude in longline Chile, we enter La Araucanía. This is a rugged Chile, full of volcanoes, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and the coniferous forests from which the region's name grew. And it is the heart of the pine nuts of the largest indigenous ethnic group in the country: the Mapuche.
The Toy Train story
UNESCO World Heritage
Siliguri a Darjeeling, India

The Himalayan Toy Train Still Running

Neither the steep slope of some stretches nor the modernity stop it. From Siliguri, in the tropical foothills of the great Asian mountain range, the Darjeeling, with its peaks in sight, the most famous of the Indian Toy Trains has ensured for 117 years, day after day, an arduous dream journey. Traveling through the area, we climb aboard and let ourselves be enchanted.
female and cub, grizzly footsteps, katmai national park, alaska
Characters
PN Katmai, Alaska

In the Footsteps of the Grizzly Man

Timothy Treadwell spent summers on end with the bears of Katmai. Traveling through Alaska, we followed some of its trails, but unlike the species' crazy protector, we never went too far.
Boat and helmsman, Cayo Los Pájaros, Los Haitises, Dominican Republic
Beaches
Samaná PeninsulaLos Haitises National Park Dominican Republic

From the Samaná Peninsula to the Dominican Haitises

In the northeast corner of the Dominican Republic, where Caribbean nature still triumphs, we face an Atlantic much more vigorous than expected in these parts. There we ride on a communal basis to the famous Limón waterfall, cross the bay of Samaná and penetrate the remote and exuberant “land of the mountains” that encloses it.
shadow vs light
Religion
Kyoto, Japan

The Kyoto Temple Reborn from the Ashes

The Golden Pavilion has been spared destruction several times throughout history, including that of US-dropped bombs, but it did not withstand the mental disturbance of Hayashi Yoken. When we admired him, he looked like never before.
Flam Railway composition below a waterfall, Norway.
On Rails
Nesbyen to Flam, Norway

Flam Railway: Sublime Norway from the First to the Last Station

By road and aboard the Flam Railway, on one of the steepest railway routes in the world, we reach Flam and the entrance to the Sognefjord, the largest, deepest and most revered of the Scandinavian fjords. From the starting point to the last station, this monumental Norway that we have unveiled is confirmed.
Society
Cemeteries

the last address

From the grandiose tombs of Novodevichy, in Moscow, to the boxed Mayan bones of Pomuch, in the Mexican province of Campeche, each people flaunts its own way of life. Even in death.
herd, foot-and-mouth disease, weak meat, colonia pellegrini, argentina
Daily life
Colónia Pellegrini, Argentina

When the Meat is Weak

The unmistakable flavor of Argentine beef is well known. But this wealth is more vulnerable than you think. The threat of foot-and-mouth disease, in particular, keeps authorities and growers afloat.
El Tatio Geisers, Atacama, Chile, Between ice and heat
Wildlife
El Tatio, Chile

El Tatio Geysers – Between the Ice and the Heat of the Atacama

Surrounded by supreme volcanoes, the geothermal field of El Tatio, in the Atacama Desert it appears as a Dantesque mirage of sulfur and steam at an icy 4200 m altitude. Its geysers and fumaroles attract hordes of travelers.
The Sounds, Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Fiordland, New Zealand

The Fjords of the Antipodes

A geological quirk made the Fiordland region the rawest and most imposing in New Zealand. Year after year, many thousands of visitors worship the sub-domain slashed between Te Anau and Milford Sound.