Lesbos (Lesvos) is the largest of the North-East Aegean islands and Greece's third largest, after Crete and Euboea, facing the Turkish coast. In antiquity it was a centre of lyric poetry: Sappho, by tradition born at Eresos, and Alcaeus lived here; the philosopher Theophrastus, pupil of Aristotle, was born here and studied the natural life of the Kalloni lagoon.
What to see
| Place | Why |
|---|---|
| Mytilene | The main town, with its Genoese-Ottoman castle, the church of St Therapon and the archaeological museum |
| Theophilos and Tériade museums | At Varia, the naive painter Theophilos and the publisher Tériade, with works by Matisse, Picasso and Chagall |
| Molyvos (Mithymna) | Village of stone houses below a castle, the island's loveliest |
| Petra | Village with a church on top of a rock |
| Agiasos | Mountain village below Lesbos's Mount Olympus, with woodcarvers and potters |
| Sigri petrified forest | Trunks fossilised by an eruption some 20 million years ago, with a natural history museum |
| Gulf of Kalloni | Salt pans and wetlands famous for birdwatching and sardines |
Lesbos is Greece's capital of ouzo, made mainly at Plomari, and of olive oil, with some eleven million olive trees. Beaches: Eresos and Skala Eresou, 8-km Vatera, Petra, Tarti. The Nobel poet Odysseas Elytis came from a Lesbos family.
Getting there
The airport has flights from Athens and Thessaloniki and some summer charters. Ferries from Piraeus take about 11-13 hours, via Chios; there are links with Kavala, Lemnos and Ayvalık in Turkey.