Indian Head rock, Santorini: the name is Indianos
A black lava profile between Red Beach and the Akrotiri lighthouse. No road reaches it, so a boat is the only way to see it. And the name most people search for is not the one you will hear on board.
€100 per person · 10:00 - 15:00 · Shared seats
Indian Head rock is the name most visitors search for, but it is not the name in use here. Published sources call it Indian Rock or Indian Face; on the boat we say Indianos. It is a black lava profile on Santorini's south coast, between Red Beach and the Akrotiri lighthouse, and no road reaches it.
It sits on the southern shore, between Red Beach and the lighthouse at Akrotiri: a dark lava cliff whose profile reads as a forehead, a nose and a chin. You either see it from a boat or you do not see it at all.
We have kept "Indian Head rock" in the heading because that is what people type into a search box. Everything below uses the names that are actually in circulation.
Four names for one rock face
The formation is real and it is genuinely a landmark. The name is where the record goes wrong.
| Name | Where it turns up | What we say on board |
|---|---|---|
| Indian Head rock | Search boxes, and a handful of listings written for them. We found it in no Greek source. | We know the rock you mean. Nobody on the boat calls it this. |
| Indian Rock | The commonest published English name. Santorini guide sites and operator itineraries use it. | This is the name the crew use in English. |
| Indian Face, or Indian Face Cliff | Used interchangeably with Indian Rock across the same tourism pages. | Also right, and closer to the truth. It is a face in a cliff, not a rock standing on its own. |
| Indianos (Ινδιάνος) | Spoken rather than published. This is the local Greek name. | What you will hear the captain say as we come past it. |
None of these is an official name. We could find no chart or gazetteer entry for the formation at all, so every name in this table comes from a tourism publisher or from local speech. We would rather tell you that than pick one and pretend it is settled.
What you are actually looking at
The cliff is lava, dark and dry, part of the volcanic arm that runs west from Red Beach to the Akrotiri lighthouse. Weather has cut the face back unevenly. From the water, at the right angle, the line of it makes a profile: brow, nose, chin, and a long slope where a neck would be.
The likeness only works from the sea, and only across a narrow arc. Come past too early and it is a cliff. Come past too late and it is a cliff again. The crew slow the boat for the stretch where it works.
One local joke has the profile looking less like an Indian than like Spyridon Marinatos, the archaeologist who excavated Akrotiri. Treat that as a joke rather than a fact. We do.
Where it comes on the route
On the semi-private day cruise the boat leaves at 10:00 and anchors off Red Beach around 10:40. Indianos comes after that, on the run west towards the lighthouse, which we round at about 12:20. So: late morning, on the landward side, with the sun still high behind the cliff.
Later in the day the light comes across the face instead of down onto it, which sharpens the profile. That is the better light for a photograph, if a photograph is what you are after.
The formation is on the same stretch of coast as Black Mountain and the cove at Mesa Pigadia. None of the three has a road to it.
The boat does not anchor at Indianos and there is no landing. It is a pass-by between Red Beach and the lighthouse, two or three minutes long. The swimming stops on this cruise are Red Beach, White Beach, Mesa Pigadia and the hot springs at Palea Kameni.
If you are comparing itineraries
Santorini operators copy their stop lists from one another. You will meet the same seven names in roughly the same order on a dozen sites: the lighthouse, Aspronisi, Indian Rock, Black Mountain, Mesa Pigadia, Red Beach, White Beach.
If one page says Indian Head rock and another says Indian Face, they are describing the same cliff. It is not a different stop, it is not an extra, and no boat charges for it. Compare the swim stops and the guest count instead. Those are the numbers that change the day.
The rest of the south coast
The south coast, from the water
Five hours, three swim stops and this coast in between, at €100 per person. Send us a date and we will tell you what is free.
Call the harbour office+30 698 977 1888
Common questions
Is Indian Head rock the real name?
No. The attested names are Indian Rock, Indian Face and, locally, Indianos. We could not find the phrase "Indian Head rock" in any Greek source or in any official gazetteer, and there appears to be no charted name for the formation at all. The rock is real. That particular wording is not.
Where is Indian Rock in Santorini?
On the southern shore, between Red Beach and the Venetian lighthouse at Akrotiri. It is part of the lava coast that runs west from the red cliffs towards the island's southern corner. There is no village, no path and no viewpoint above it, which is why it is a boat landmark rather than a road one.
Can you get to Indian Rock by car?
No. It is not reachable by car and there is no marked walking path down to it. The face only resolves into a profile from out on the water anyway, so even standing on the clifftop above would not show you the thing you came to see. A boat is the only way.
Can you swim at Indian Rock?
Not here. The water off the face is deep, the cliff is sheer and there is nothing to anchor for, so we pass rather than stop. The anchored swims on the day cruise are Red Beach, White Beach and the crater at Nea Kameni, with the hot springs when the sea allows.
Why is it called Indianos?
Because that is the Greek word for an Indian, and the weathered profile of the cliff suggests a face. The English names in circulation are translations of the same idea. Nobody we can point to has recorded who named it or when, so we leave the origin where we found it: unsourced.
Which cruises pass it?
Every cruise that runs the south coast between Red Beach and the Akrotiri lighthouse, which means our semi-private and private day cruises and the full-day private. Sunset cruises take the same coast in different light. The captain decides the order of the day on the morning, based on the wind.
Santorini Boat Tour - Water Taxi is a catamaran cruise and water taxi operator based in Fira, Santorini.
Updated August 2026