Mytilene: the island of poets in the eastern Aegean

The Castle of Mytilene, among the Mediterranean's most extensive medieval fortresses, dominates the main port of Lesbos island.

Just steps away, the Archaeological Museum of Mytilene displays Roman mosaics from villas of the ancient city, among Greece's most well-preserved insular mosaics.

Continuing inland you visit the Petrified Forest of Lesbos, a geological heritage preserving fossilized logs millions of years old.

Toward evening, coastal villages of Lesbos offer local ouzo accompanied by mezédes, the traditional Greek appetizers.

Lesbos, birthplace of poetess Sappho in the sixth century BC, lent its name to the term lesbian, becoming over the centuries a cultural symbol associated with the poetess and her work.

The Petrified Forest of Lesbos, formed some twenty million years ago by volcanic eruptions, remains one of the few sites in the world where fossilized tree trunks are still visible in their original positions, protected as an open-air museum.