About petrified trees in Greece

It never occurred to me that petrified trees were ever found in Greece, as I am only aware of the remains that exist in an around the National Petrified Forest in northeastern Arizona, U.S.A.

During my travels through the Greek province of Thrace, I was surprised to find the fossilized remains of a 20 million-years-old oak tree. This 22-meter-long specimen at Tychero is carefully fenced and protected – rightfully so, of course. Expressing my astonishment, I was further informed that a far greater number of petrified trees had been exposed on the island of Lesbos.

At the time, I secretly wondered whether Alexander had seen this tree or other such bits when he marched through the area before crossing the Hellespont. This is not the kind of information one can find in a history book, and even writers from antiquity would not have bothered about it. But the question remained in the back of my head.

I did not think further about these trees, till I came across an article in the Archaeological News Network showing an exquisite picture of two petrified tree trunks of respectively 21 and 23 meters recently uncovered on the island of Lesbos. These are coniferous trees, possibly belonging to the sequoia tree family.

[Picture from the Archaeological News Network]

A petrified tree is one of the wonders that nature creates. The petrifying process is triggered by volcanic eruptions when mudflows cover the landscape. All organic material which is then enclosed in this layer of lava slowly fossilizes. What happens is that each and every molecule of the tree, from its leaves and seeds to the trunk and roots is preserved and that is what we see today. Some trees remain standing, others fall over, but all of them create a fairy-tale world in a wide range of colors, ranging from green and black to yellow and red. A most spectacular view!