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MYTILINI , the port and capital, sprawls between and around two bays divided by a fortified promontory, and in Greek fashion often doubles as the name of the island. Many visitors are put off by the combination of urban bustle and (in the traditionally humbler northern districts) slight seediness, and contrive to leave as soon as possible; the town returns the compliment by being a fairly impractical and occasionally expensive place to base yourself. Nonetheless, Mytilini has enough to justify a layover of a few hours. On the promontory sits the Byzantine-Genoese-Ottoman fortress (Tues-Sun 8am-2.30pm; ?1.50), comprising ruined structures from all these eras and an Ottoman inscription above a Byzantine double-headed eagle at the south gate. Further inland, the town skyline is dominated in turn by the Germanic-Gothic belfry spire of Ayios Theodhoros and the mammary dome of Ayios Therapon , both expressions of the post-Baroque taste of the nineteenth-century Ottoman Greek bourgeoisie. They stand more or less at opposite ends of the bazaar, whose main street, Ermou, links the town centre with the little-used north harbour of Pano Skala. On its way there Ermou passes several expensive but rather picked-over antique shops near the roofless, derelict Yeni Tzami at the heart of the old Muslim quarter, just a few steps east of a superb Turkish hamam , currently being restored to its former glory and due to function again as a bathhouse by late 2002. Between Ermou and the castle lies a maze of atmospheric lanes lined with grandiose Belle Epoque mansions and elderly vernacular houses, though most of the ornate townhouses are to be found in the southerly districts of Souradha and Kioski, on the way to the airport. Mytilini's excellent archeological collection is housed in two separate galleries (May-Sept daily 8am-7pm; Oct-April Tues-Sun 8.30am-3pm; ?1.50), a few hundred metres apart. The newer, upper museum, at the base of 8-Noemvriou, is devoted to finds from wealthy Roman Mytilene, in particular three rooms of well-displayed mosaics from second/third-century AD villas - highlights are a crude but engaging scene of Orpheus charming all manner of beasts, and two fishermen surrounded by clearly recognizable (and edible) sea creatures. Earlier eras are represented in the older wing (Tues-Sun 8.30am-3pm; same ticket as Roman wing), housed in a former mansion just behind the ferry dock. The ground floor has Neolithic finds from Ayios Vartholomeos cave and Bronze Age Thermi, but the star, late-Classical exhibits upstairs include minutely detailed terracotta figurines: a pair of acrobats, two kourotrophoi figures (goddesses suckling infants, predecessors of all Byzantine Galaktotrofoussa icons), children playing with a ball or dogs, and Aphrodite riding a dolphin. A specially built annexe at the rear contains stone-cut inscriptions of various edicts and treaties, plus a Roman sculpture of a drunken satyr asleep on a wineskin. There's also a worthwhile Byzantine Art Museum (no regular hours at present; apply to church office adjacent Mon-Fri 9am-noon) just behind Ayios Therapon, containing various icons rescued from rural churches, plus a canvas of the Assumption by Theophilos.
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