Butterflies Valley
Wooded ravine where thousands of resin-drawn moths cling motionless to tree trunks through the summer heat.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Butterflies Valley in Rhodes explains why the name is a misnomer: every creature clinging to the tree trunks is actually a Jersey tiger moth, drawn in by the golden resin that storax and sweetgum trees sweat out each June. It follows the moth's brief, fasting final weeks and the flash of red hidden under its gray wings, then climbs the path above the ravine to a small chapel built by an exiled Moldavian prince in the 1780s. Walk quietly past the trunks, since a clap or shout can burn through days of a moth's remaining energy.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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