Description of the attraction
One of the most interesting and popular attractions of the Greek island of Lesvos is undoubtedly the famous Petrified Forest, which received the status of a natural monument in 1985. It is located in the western part of the island, between the settlements of Sigri, Eressos and Antissa and covers an area of 150 square kilometers (single fossils are scattered almost throughout the island). It is one of the largest petrified tree clusters in the world.
The history of the Petrified Forest began about 20 million years ago, when, as a result of intense volcanic activity in the North Aegean region, the island of Lesvos was under a layer of volcanic ash and lava, which actually caused the formation of this amazing natural monument. Thanks, among other things, to favorable climatic conditions, the morphological features of the island vegetation have been perfectly preserved to this day and have made it possible to identify more than forty different plant species, a significant part of which are representatives of such families as pine, yew, cypress, laurel and beech. There are also such plants as birch, alder, hornbeam, willow, persimmon, poplar, lime, maple, blackberry and various types of palm trees. In the fossilized forest, very rare species were also found that do not have modern descendants. In general, the lesbos forest is an excellent example of the ecosystem of the Aegean region during the Lower Miocene.
Today, the Petrified Forest of Lesvos is an impressive park with hundreds of fallen and erect petrified tree trunks, with perfectly preserved root systems. Fossilized branches, leaves, fruits and some fossils and prints of animals that lived in Lesvos millions of years ago have also survived to this day. It was here that the world's tallest petrified tree was found standing upright (7.20 m in height and 8.58 m in diameter).
The Petrified Forest is managed by the Sigri Natural History Museum of Lesvos.
