2 Best Sights in Sigri, The Northern Aegean Islands

Every day in summer, a glass-bottomed boat sails from Sigri port across to Nissiopi island, Greece's first marine fossil park. Once home to dinosaurs and giant forests, guides from the Natural History Museum explain how huge, fossilized trunks came to be buried in layers of ash. The fascinating trip finds tree stumps petrified beneath the waves and describes the birth of the Aegean Sea millions of years ago.

Ancient trees fossilized by volcanic ash up to 20 million years ago stand stark on a hillside above Sigri. If you're expecting a thick woods, you might be taken aback by this seemingly barren site that at first appears as a collection of stumps leaning every which way among shrubs and rock. However, a walk along well-organized trails reveals delicate colors and a haunting, strange beauty. You can also study the specimens at Ipsilou, a large monastery on the highest peak in this wild, moonscape-like volcanic landscape, overlooking western Lesvos and Asia Minor across the Aegean.