Petrified forest of Lesbos

Interesting facts

Plaka Park holds what is described as the thickest standing petrified trunk in the world, with a perimeter of about 13.7 metres.

The tallest standing trunk, an ancestral form of the sequoia, rises 7.02 metres and is considered the tallest standing fossil tree in Europe.

Many of the fossil trees belong to ancestors of today's sequoias, a group that once flourished around the Aegean and has long vanished from the region.

The petrified trunks come in striking shades of red, yellow, green and black, depending on the minerals that replaced the original wood.

Greece declared the fossil sites a Protected Natural Monument in 1985 by special presidential decree.

Bali-Alonia, the first open-air park of the petrified forest, opened to visitors in 1987, though locals had known the fossils since at least the 18th century.

Nissiopi became the first marine fossil park in Greece, where trunks from a forest that once stood on dry land now lie under the sea.

In 2020 road works on the Kalloni–Sigri highway uncovered the base of a fossil sequoia with part of its roots, which was left in place for display.

The forest grew on ground formed by earlier eruptions before fresh volcanic ash buried and preserved it.

In 2009 the petrified forest area was named a European Destination of Excellence under the EU's EDEN programme.

Why it is worth it

On the dry, rocky hills of western Lesbos stand the stone stumps of a forest that grew here some 17 to 20 million years ago. Trunks, roots, branches and even leaves were turned to stone where the volcanoes buried them, and the fossil wood keeps the structure of the original trees. Among the finds is a complete tree 19.5 metres long, preserved with roots, branches and leaves — a rare record of a whole plant rather than scattered fragments.

The forest was buried during the early Miocene, when a series of volcanic eruptions covered this part of the island in lava flows and thick layers of ash. Over time the buried wood was mineralised and turned to stone. The vegetation they record was subtropical, very different from today's Mediterranean scrub: laurels, beeches and conifers are among the plant groups identified. Around 150 fossil logs have been exposed in the main concentration, which lies in the triangle formed by the villages of Sigri, Eresos and Antissa, while isolated fossils occur as far away as Molyvos, Polichnitos and Plomari.

The petrified forest is a protected natural monument and the central geosite of the Lesvos UNESCO Global Geopark. In 2022 the International Union of Geological Sciences named it a geological heritage site, citing it as one of the most complete records of an early Miocene forest ecosystem. Visits are organised around several parks — the main Petrified Forest Park, the parks at Sigri and Plaka, and the marine park around the islet of Nissiopi, where fossil trunks lie under water. The Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest, founded in 1994 in Sigri, manages the sites and displays the fossils found here.

Getting there

The petrified forest lies in the west of Lesbos, between Sigri, Eresos and Antissa. The island capital, Mytilene, is about 60 km away in a straight line, and Mytilene International Airport (MJT) about 65 km.

Petrified forest of Lesbos

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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