Guide caveat: I'm a museum junkie - not unrelated to my other travel addiction, little souvenirs (see my other article on that particular personal foible!)I find pleasure in massive steel structures with carefully curated cases as well as dark, dingy, crowded collections with nary a typed tag in sight. Greece, with its active and vigilant Ministry of Culture to encourage and cultivate museums, is a delight.
Even if you don't share this passion with me, we both know that sometime during your trip you will feel obliged to throw down a few euro and enter at least one museum. If there can be only one, let it be the splendid collection housed at the National Archeological Museum of Athens. (Now, if you only share my passion for little souvenirs, remember that museum gift shops are often the best source of all!)
The collection of sculpture is unforgettable, and the official page here gives only a hint of the power of the images themselves. Click on the thumbnails to bring up (often slowly) a slightly more evocative large photo.
For those on longer journeys, who may have inexplicably reached saturation point, if only temporarily, on Greek sculpture and art, there's a good collection of Egyptian art here as well.
Near the Acropolis itself there is the appropriately-named Acropolis Museum, which conserves some of the treasures excavated from various locations on the sacred high plateau of Athens.
Lesser-known but compelling, the Museum of the Ancient Agora of Athens is well worth a visit.
The ancient agora area of Athens is often missed by visitors, and that's a shame. The historic heart of Athens deserves more than the passing attention of accidental visitors. The reconstructed Stoa of Attalos gives an idea of the splendor of Athens in its heyday, an image that is hard to recreate from the actual remains themselves.
The fascinating Numismatic Museum was closed during the transfer of the collection into archaeologist Schliemann's old abode but it has reopened. It's fascinating both for the coin collection and for the restored mansion that houses it.
~by deTraci Regula
Even if you don't share this passion with me, we both know that sometime during your trip you will feel obliged to throw down a few euro and enter at least one museum. If there can be only one, let it be the splendid collection housed at the National Archeological Museum of Athens. (Now, if you only share my passion for little souvenirs, remember that museum gift shops are often the best source of all!)
The collection of sculpture is unforgettable, and the official page here gives only a hint of the power of the images themselves. Click on the thumbnails to bring up (often slowly) a slightly more evocative large photo.
For those on longer journeys, who may have inexplicably reached saturation point, if only temporarily, on Greek sculpture and art, there's a good collection of Egyptian art here as well.
Near the Acropolis itself there is the appropriately-named Acropolis Museum, which conserves some of the treasures excavated from various locations on the sacred high plateau of Athens.
Lesser-known but compelling, the Museum of the Ancient Agora of Athens is well worth a visit.
The ancient agora area of Athens is often missed by visitors, and that's a shame. The historic heart of Athens deserves more than the passing attention of accidental visitors. The reconstructed Stoa of Attalos gives an idea of the splendor of Athens in its heyday, an image that is hard to recreate from the actual remains themselves.
The fascinating Numismatic Museum was closed during the transfer of the collection into archaeologist Schliemann's old abode but it has reopened. It's fascinating both for the coin collection and for the restored mansion that houses it.
~by deTraci Regula
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