Figure 1 shows a detailed map of the famous fossils sites near Mytilini; Q1 and Q5 are probably the most interesting ones. Start walking in the creek from the second road bridge N of Mytilini to the NW. You are in the Mytilini Formation of the Upper series (see previous paper, Fig. 3). The sequence is basically dipping at 10-25º to the E: however, small-scale faults are abundant and cause locally dips into other directions. Near Smakia, the Old Mill beds consisting of marls and water lain tuffs (grey or tan-reddish) are exposed. They contain at least two bone beds. Above the Old Mill beds follow the Gravel Beds with numerous gravel layers and sandy marls. The thickness of the Gravel Beds is highly variable and the might locally pinch out completely.
Bear N and walk up the Potamies valley, which brings you into the White Beds with their whitish to grey limestones. The lowest bone bed is situated at the uppermost part of the White Beds. The Main Bone Beds follow above the White Beds. They host most of the fossil horizons. The Main Bone Beds itself are marls and mudstones sprinkled with thin layers of gravel. Most of the gravels in the Main Bone Bed contain pebbles of Hora Formation and basement of the Ampelos nappe. The Main Bone Beds also contain numerous water lain tuffs and palaeosols. Fossils have been found both in the White Beds and the overlying sandy sediments of the Main Bone Beds. Outcrop photographs of the famous Panaima and Phloios localities (Figs 4 and 5) can be found in Solounias and Mayor 2004, their fig. 4). At Phloios, a well-exposed NW-striking fault scarp is exposed in greyish limestone. Those striated scarps and the rugged topography had inspired the ancient Greek philosophers to think about ancient earthquakes.
The museum was established in 1965 and is in the Municipality building. The museum basically exhibits, amongst others, the fossils of bones from animals that lived 7-3.5 Myr ago. They belong to middle and large sized mammals and also smaller vertebrate terrestrial mammals. Most important are the fossils of Samokeros (ancient type of cattle), Samotherion (wild beats of Samos), Gomphotherion, Dinotherion, Macherodon, Metelouros and large carnivorous mammals. The exhibits come mainly from the excavations of J. Melentis that were conducted in 1963 in the area of ‘Adrianos’ near the village of Mytilini. In the past, excavations were also conducted in 1832, 1885, 1887 and 1925 but the findings of these excavations were forwarded to museums in Lausanne, London, New York, Budapest, Frankfurt and elsewhere (see above).
The famous tunnel of Efpalinus (Fig. 7) was the "8th wonder" of the ancient world. It is one of the Polycratian constructions, constructed ~550 BC by Efpalinus, an engineer from Megara. It is an aqueduct, a masterpiece of engineering device, the most important of the antique era.
The way the tunnel is constructed often comes as a surprise even to modern experts. Given the primitive tools (hammer and chisel) available at the time the success of the enterprise is astonishing. This tunnel is the middle section of a major aqueduct to supply Polycrate's town, i.e. the ancient city of Samos, the modern Pythagorion, with water. Its construction took about 10 years and the tunnel has a length of 1036 meters. A total of 7000 cubic meters of natural rock had to be removed for the conduit. The section of the tunnel is on average 1.8 m by 1.8 m, and is cuts through the mountain at a depth of 180 m below its summit. This ancient tunnel is constructed with rectangular stones which are very skillfully fitted one on top of the other. It is roofed with a triangular vault, made with the same kind of stones.
The ancient Greek builders first had to hollow out the mountain and then constructed in it the wall and vaulted corridor as a passageway. The water was channeled through clay pipes which were installed in the aqueduct below the part of the tunnel in the direction of the source and alongside it in the direction of the town. These pipes, which remained in many places, are so well made that they appear as put in yesterday.