Page 137 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Greek Islands

acropolis hill, you can spot the
ancient jetty sub merged in
the fishing anchorage. Little
remains at the summit, but
the Byzantine era is repre-
sented in the ancient centre
by the foundations of the
basilica of Ágios Andreás;
its 5th-century mosaics still
await restoration.
The village of Eresós, 11 km
(7 miles) inland, grew up as a
refuge from medieval pirate
raids; a fertile plain extends
between the two settlements.
Two of Eresós’s most famous
natives were the philosopher
The stone base of Forest, based in Sígri, was and botanist Theophrastos,
a tree at Lésvos established to promote this known for associating with
Petrified Forest area. It is actually strongest Plato, and Sappho, one of the
on Aegean geology and ancient world’s greatest poets.
seismic activity.
i Natural History Museum of SAPPHO, THE POET
Moní Ypsiloú the Lésvos Petrified Forest OF LÉSVOS
Μονή Υψηλού ⌂ Sígri # 8:30am–4:30pm Sappho (c 615–562 BC)
daily (from 9am Sun) ¢ Main was born into an aris­
⌂ 62 km (39 miles) NW of pub hols ∑ lesvosmuseum.gr
Mytilíni @ § 22530 56259 tocratic family. In her
day, her poetry was
Spread across the 511-m known across the
(1,676-ft) summit of Mount o Mediterranean, though
Órdymnos, an extinct volcano, it now sur vives only
Moní Ypsiloú was founded in Sígri in short quotations.
the 12th century and is now Σίγρι Much of her work was
home to just four monks. It inspired by female
has a handsome double gate, ⌂ 93 km (58 miles) companions: discreet
and a fine wood-lattice ceiling NW of Mytilíni @ homosexuality was
in its katholikón (main church), An 18th-century Ottoman unremarkable in her
plus a rich exhibition of castle and the church of Agía time. Legend asserts
ecclesiastical treasures. In Triáda dominate this sleepy that she fell in love with
the courtyard outside stand port, pro tected by long, narrow a younger man. Assured
a number of fragments of Nisópi island. Sígri’s continuing that unrequited love
petrified trees. The patron status as a naval base and could be cured by
saint of the monastery is occasional ferry port has leaping from a cliff, she
John the Divine (author of discouraged tourist develop- did so and drowned:
The Book of Revelation). ment, though it has a couple of an unlikely end for a
The main entry to Lésvos’s small beaches; emptier ones poet reputed to be the
petrified forest is just west of are only a short drive away. first literary lesbian.
Ypsiloú. Some 15 to 20 million
years ago, Mount Órdymnos
erupted, beginning the pro- p
cess whereby huge stands
of sequ oia trees that were Skála Eresoú
buried in the volcanic ash Σκάλα Ερεσού
were transformed into stone.
The Natural History Museum ⌂ 89 km (55 miles) W of
of the Lésvos Petrified Mytilíni town @
Extended beneath the
acro polis of ancient Eresos,
the long beach at Skála
The church on the volcanic Eresoú is Greece’s prime
monolith in the middle of lesbian resort, and is popular
the coastal village of Pétra with families. From the
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