The National Archaeological Museum in Athens is the largest archaeological museum in Greece and one of the most famous museums in the world. Its rich collection introduces its guests to the history of the development of ancient Greek culture and art through different eras and civilisations, starting from prehistoric times.
The National Archaeological Museum was officially founded back in 1829 and was originally located on the island of Aegina. It was later decided to move the archaeological collection to Athens, which had by then been proclaimed the capital of the Kingdom of Greece. The construction of the new museum began in 1866 and was not completed until 1889. The building was erected in the neoclassical style characteristic of Europe at that time. Over the next 100 years, the museum building was repeatedly rebuilt and expanded, but still managed to create a harmonious architectural ensemble and preserve the original style.
The collection of the National Archaeological Museum contains unique ancient artefacts found during archaeological excavations on the islands of Santorini and Delos, in the famous Mycenae and Tirynthos, in Sparta and Thebes, in Pylos and Athens, as well as in many other parts of Greece and beyond. The museum exhibits a variety of pottery, bronze, ivory and stone, gold and silver jewellery, sculptures and statuettes, weapons, coins, wall frescoes and much more.
Among the most interesting and valuable exhibits of the museum are the gold burial mask of Agamemnon found by Schliemann in Mycenae (1600 BC), the Antikythera Mechanism (a mechanical device used to calculate the motion of celestial bodies, 150-100 BC) and a clay tablet depicting the Eleusinian Mysteries (370 BC). Equally interesting are the Dipylon amphora (8th century BC), unique ancient frescoes from the island of Santorini (15th century BC), wooden panels by Pitts, the Lemnos Stella (6th century BC), the Nessus amphora (7th century BC), the Mycenaean "Vase with Warriors" (12th century BC) and much more. A number of bronze and marble statues also deserve special attention - the bronze "Ephebus from Antikythera", the marble Kouros from Anavissos (540-515 BC. ), "Marathon Youth" (4th century BC), "Poseidon from Cape Artemision" (460-450 BC), marble Kouros Sunion from Naxos (600 BC), "Horseman from Cape Artemision" (2nd century BC), etc.
The National Archaeological Museum also has an excellent library - more than 20000 volumes (among which many rare editions) on archaeology, art, philosophy and religion, an impressive photo archive, periodicals, etc. Heinrich Schliemann's personal diaries are also kept in the museum.
In the southern wing of the museum building is the Epigraphic Museum, which is a separate structural unit. Its impressive collection, which is rightly considered one of the best of its kind, contains more than 13500 inscriptions.
The Museum of Epigraphy is located in the southern wing of the museum building.
