Sigri, near the western tip of Lesvos, has an appropriately and-of-the-line feel, a small fishing village with a bay granted by a small castle and the long island of Nissiopi, which stretches across its mouth and acts as a buffer to the prevailing winds. The eighteenth-century Ottoman castle spots a tugra (the sultan’s monogram) over its entrance.
One of the reasons you must visit Sigri is Natural history Museum of Lesvos with a great showroom with petrified founds from the Petrified forest and all around Lesvos.
The nearest of several beaches, south of the castle headland, is somewhat narrow and backed by a little-used road to Eressos, the far superior one of Faneromeni lies 3Km north by a coastal dirt track from the northern outskirts of town. This beach is long and scenic, but you will need a 4wheel drive vehicle to reach it. A sorter but equally good strand, Limena, can found 2Km south of Sigri at another creek mouth, just off the rough one-lane.
The Natural History Museum of the Petrified Forest of Lesvos.
Overseen from the Ministry of Culture, was founded in 1994 aiming at the study, research, appointment, preservation and protection of the Petrified Forest of Lesvos. Recognising the major geological and pale ontological value of the site, the Greek State has declared the Petrified Forest to be preserved Natural Monument (Presidential Decree 443/85). The aim of designating the Petrified Forest as such is the more effective protection and rational management of the area. The Petrified Forest is founding member of the European Geoparks Network. In February 2004 was decided its integration in the Global Network of Geoparks assisted by UNESCO.
The monastery of Ypsilou is an active men monastery dedicated to St John Theologos, located on the top of the mountain Ordymnos at the west part of Lesbos, at 634m high. Tradition places the foundation of the monastery in Byzantine years, before A.D. 800, and mentions it as Monastery of Korakas, a name which was modified to Monastery of Zisira in the years of the Turkish occupation.
