First came the tree, all 19.5 metres of it, with roots and branches and leaves. Then, weeks later, the discovery of 150 fossilised logs, one on top of the other, a short distance away.
Nikolas Zouros, a professor of geology at the University of the Aegean, couldn’t believe his luck. In 25 years of excavating the petrified forest of Lesbos, he had unearthed nothing like it.
“The tree is unique,” he said. “To discover it so complete and in such excellent condition is a first. To then discover a treasure trove of so many petrified trunks in a single pit was, well, unbelievable.”
Stretching across almost all of the Greek island’s western peninsula, the petrified forest, a Unesco global geopark, is among the largest in the world.
Produced by successive volcanic eruptions, its vividly coloured fossilised trunks are a witness to the explosions that buried much of Lesbos under lava and ash between 17 and 20 million years ago.