By visiting museums in Athens you will experience the history of Greece.
There are more than 240 state or state-controlled museums in the country, exhibiting Greek art during four-thousand-years. Neo-lithic, classical, Hellenistic, Byzantine and post-Byzantine, as well as modern art can be found in the different museums.

:: National Archaeological Museum

The National Archaeological Museum is the largest and most famous museum of ancient Greek art. Surely, it is the best museum of Greek artifacts.
The museum contains collections of : Prehistoric items, Sculpture, Pottery and Minor art, Bronzes, Egyptian Art.
It is the most important archaeological museum in Greece and one of the richest in the world concerning ancient Greek art.
Its collections are representative of all the cultures that flourished in Greece.

Address 44, Patission Str. - 106 82 Athens
Monday: 13.00-19.30
Tuesday-Sunday: 08.00-19.30
Holiday: 08.30-15.00
Telephone +30-210-8217717, 8217724
Fax +30-210-8213573

:: Acropolis Museum

Acropolis - it is one of the most important museums in the world. It temporarily houses masterpieces of the ancient Greek civilization, dedicated to the most important of the Athenian sanctuaries, the "temenos" of Athena Parthenos.
The Acropolis Museum contains the artifacts excavated on the Athenian Acropolis over the last century. Founded in the middle of the 19th century, the museum was renovated between 1949 and 1953 and consists of 9 exhibition rooms. After a tour in the museum you will better understand the history and foundation of Acropolis. You will find a large range of Greek sculptures from excavations on the Acropolis mountain. Among the most famous exhibits are the Moschoforos – an exceptional fine statue of a bearded youth of the 6th century BC, the Archaic Kores - statues of a young women offered to Athena and the Caryatids – statues of beautiful priestesses.

Monday: 11.00-17.00
Tuesday - Sunday: 08.00-17.00
+30-210-32.14.172, 32.36.665, 92.38.724
Fax: +30-210-92.39.023

:: Byzantine Museum

The Byzantine museum, founded in 1914, is located on Vasilissis Sofias Avenue, not far from Syntagma Square. The Museum can be proud of having one of the richest collections of Byzantine icons in the world. The large range of sculptures dates from the 4th to the 19th century and some of them are unique and important for a better understanding of Byzantine art and culture.
From 1930 on it has been housed in the "Ilisia" mansion, which belonged to the Duchess of Placentia and was built in 1848 by the architect Stamatis Kleanthes. It was transformed into a museum by the architect Aristotle Zachos. In recent yars an addition and a large extension with basement and buildings in part above ground have been made. The architectural design is by Manos Perrakis.

address: 22 Vasilissas Sophias, Athens 106 75
open from 29 of July until 31 October 2004 Daily 08.30-21.00
Monday Closed
+30-210-72.11.027 , 72.32.178,
Fax +30-210-72.31.883

:: Museum of the Ancient Agora of Athens

The Museum is housed in the Stoa of Attalos, a reconstructed building of around 150 B.C. The characteristic feature of the museum is that the exhibits are all closely connected with the Athenian Democracy, as the Agora was the focus of the city's public life. Her you can see a large range of sculptures, coins, Clay lamps and many other objects in bronze, bone, ivory, and glass.
The Stoa of Attalos was discovered during the excavations carried out by the Greek Archaeological Society between 1859 and 1902. In 1953-56 it was reconstructed in order to house the finds from the excavations at the Agora. In 1957 the Greek state assumed responsibility for the administration and security of the museum and the archaeological site.

Some of the most important items of the exhibition are the Aryballos, Klepsydra, Bronze head of Nike and the statue of a Nereid. 
 
Monday: 11.00-17.00
Tuesday - Sunday: 08.00-17.00
+30-210-32.10.185

:: Benaki Museum Athens

Greece at Benaki Museum - This group of collections comprises many distinct categories totalling more than 30.000 items illustrating the character of the Greek world through a spectacular historical panorama: from antiquity and the age of Roman domination to the medieval Byzantine period, from the fall of Constantinople (1453) and the centuries of Frankish and Ottoman occupation to the outbreak of the struggle for independence in 1821, and from the formation of the modern state of Greece (1830) down to 1922, the year in which the Asia Minor disaster took place.


1, Koumbari str & Vas. Sofias av.
106 74 Athens
tel +30-210 367 1000
fax +30-210 367 1063