Admire the tallest standing petrified tree trunk

The Petrified Forest Park in Bali Alonia is the first outdoor visiting park of the Petrified Forest. It was created in 1987 and since the 18th century the area has been known as “Kiria Apolithomeni”.

Visiting the park is without doubt an unforgettable experience. The number of standing fossilized tree trunks, but also the excellent condition of their preservation, impress all visitors.

The systematic excavation carried out by the Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest at the area of the park has brought to light many plant fossils, including the highest known standing trunk of a fossilized tree, not only in Lesvos, but also in Europe. Its height reaches 7.02 meters and its perimeter 8.58 meters and it is am ancestral form of the present-day Sequoia.

During the excavations implemented by the Museum, a great number of fossilized plants  (fruits, leaves, branches, roots) have also been discovered, now displayed at the exhibition halls of the Museum.

During your visit at the park, you can admire the unique primitive forms of Pine trees, the ancestors of present-day Pines, forming small clusters.

The majority of the fossilized trunks belong to the Taxodiaceae family and are primitive forms of the present-day Sequoia, which today grows on the west coast of the United States. To this family also belong the largest lying fossilized trunk of a conifer tree (with a length of more than 20 meters), as well as the large standing trunks of Sequoias.

The Museum has designed three thematic walking routes for the visitors of the park.

At the Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest you can find the Guide to the Petrified Forest Park that provides detailed information about all the fossil-bearing positions and the walking trails.