In fruit
Roughly 3,000 to 3,400 years old.
Photo: Unukorno (CC BY 4.0)
Ancient trees in Greece
The three Greek places mapped here answer the age question in different ways. We map 20 trees in 3 cities here. The oldest of them is The Olive Tree of Azoria (Kavousi) in Crete, at roughly 3,000 to 3,400 years.
Thessaloniki took core samples from four plane trees in 2019: 828 years for the one below the Byzantine walls, then 310, 235 and 205 for the others. Athens works in inheritance: the olive beside the Erechtheion is tied by Herodotus to the Persian sack of 480 BC, though the wood standing today is only 70 to 110 years old, since an olive regrows from its base and a trunk is never the tree's age. Another Athens olive carries an estimate spanning 300 to 2,500 years. Crete claims outright: the Olive Tree of Vouves is put at 2,000 to 4,000 years and still bears fruit, and a second, at Azoria, carries 3,000 to 3,400 years from pottery buried in its roots. All three say so plainly, which is more than most places manage. Twenty trees so far.
Every place we map in Greece
1
Athens12 trees · oldest 700-1500 years2
Crete4 trees · oldest 3,000-3,400 years3Thessaloniki4 trees · oldest ~830 years
Athens12 trees · oldest 700-1500 years2Crete4 trees · oldest 3,000-3,400 years3Thessaloniki4 trees · oldest ~830 years6 species grow in Greece
Oaks Holm Oak 1
Planes Oriental Plane 9
Figs and mulberries Rubber Fig 1
Conifers Mediterranean Cypress 1
Palms California Fan Palm 1
Fruit and blossom Olive 7
The 10 oldest trees we map in Greece
In fruit
Roughly 2,000 to 4,000 years old.
Photo: Eric Nagle (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Roughly 780 to 870 years old.
In fruit
Roughly 700 to 1,500 years old.
Photo: George E. Koronaios (CC BY-SA 4.0)
In fruit
Roughly 300 to 2,500 years old.
Photo: ELENITSA1976 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Roughly 290 to 330 years old.
Roughly 215 to 255 years old.
Roughly 190 to 220 years old.
Roughly 165 to 189 years old.
Photo: LBM1948 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Roughly 150 to 187 years old.
Photo: macrolepis (CC BY 3.0)
Trees from Greece also appear in The Autumn Harvest · Europe's Best Tree City Trips · The Trees the World Has Written About. See every city on the map, or open the map to find what is near you.