It is common to see incave village homes along the cliff of Oia. These houses have been embedded into the porous volcanic rock that was left over from a large volcanic explosion many years ago that sunk the center of the island. The town, noted for its picturesque and mostly blue and white architecture, also combines medieval Venetian houses which used to belong to the captains during the Venetian rule. To maintain and protect the beauty of this unique architecture, there are laws that control modernism of the village. It is no doubt that Oia remains one of the foremost tourist attractions of the Aegean Sea.