The Petrified Forest on the island of Lesvos is one of the most fascinating and rare monuments of geological heritage in the world. It could be compared with a quasi-natural archive that has recorded the geological history of the Aegean basin over the last 20 million years.

Some days ago, a group of scouts visited the Museum for an ordinary visit and when the last scout entered the building, it was announced that the Museum had just recorded one million visitors, since 1996.

As early as in 1985, the forest was declared a Protected Natural Monument and in 2004, it was included into the Global Geopark Network of UNESCO.

Since then, the monument has received many distinctions such as the ''Tourism and Protected Areas'' prize as a top sustainable tourism destination in Greece for 2009 by the European Commission-sponsored programme "European Destinations of Excellence" (EDEN).

To reciprocate, the scouts offered the Museum the official flag of the Greek Scout Movement centenarian.

See also: Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest