The Petrified Forest
Photo: Greece Field Guide
The Verdict
Fossilised trees still standing where they grew twenty million years ago, in the dry western corner of Lesvos.
Why go
In the west of Lesvos, around Sigri, volcanic ash buried a forest about twenty million years ago and turned the trunks to stone where they stood. You can walk among fossilised trees still upright, roots and rings legible, across a wide dry landscape of low hills — a geology lesson you can put a hand on. The natural history museum at Sigri explains how it happened, and the coast out here is bare and empty, with a castle on the headland above the village.
Understand the place
The petrified forest of Lesvos, where volcanic ash buried and preserved whole trunks that now stand as stone in the ground.
Nearby
Related
More natural features in Greece
Sources
Booking links
Commercial links: we may earn a commission if you book through them, at no extra cost to you.
Plan this trip
Greece Field Guide helps you decide. When you're ready to arrange it, take your saved places to an itinerary.