The Acropolis Museum in Athens

The Acropolis Museum in Athens

The detail of the exhibits and sculptures in the Acropolis Museum is astonishing, so we’ll merely whet your appetite with a few pointers. Take a moment to admire the miniature replicas of the Acropolis after each of major invasions in Athens’ history – Persian, Roman, Ottoman and Venetian – in the foyer to place everything you’re about to see into context.

• BASEMENT & GROUND FLOOR

An ancient Athenian neighbourhood

Before you move into the main exhibition space of the Acropolis Museum, head down to the display of the ancient Athenian neighbourhood uncovered during the building of the museum. Visible through glass floors above, the remains can also be visited. The complex layout of streets, houses, baths, workshops and tombs gives an insight into the history of ancient Athens, from as early as the 4th millennium BC up to the 12th century AD.

The Gallery of the Slopes of the Acropolis

On a pathway angled to represent the experience of ascending the Sacred Rock, this gallery contains artefacts found during the creation of the museum. Objects such as perfume bottles and symposium vases, cosmetics and jewellery containers, and spindle-whorls and artwork depicting birth and death ceremonies reveal intriguing details of everyday life in the houses and sanctuaries below the Acropolis of Athens.

• FIRST FLOOR

The Archaic Acropolis Gallery

Moving on to the first floor, you come face to face with the sculptures of the Archaic period (7th century BC to the end of the Persian Wars in 479 BC) – impressive enough, but even more so when you learn that they were once brightly coloured with natural dyes. You’ll also find the remains of structures like the Hekatompedos (a building probably in the place of the first Parthenon) and the pediment of the Gigantomachy (a battle between Gods and Giants), which decorated the Old Temple.

The Propylaia, Erechtheion and Temple of Athena Nike

Amongst the highlights from the Golden Age of Pericles in the 5th century BC. Take your time to explore them one by one – including the noble Caryatids, those dignified female figures propping up the porch of the Erechtheion (on the north side of the Acropolis). Note the empty circle left for the Caryatid taken by Lord Elgin (along with nearly half the 150m marble frieze around the Parthenon) and sold to the British Museum in the early 19th century. There’s also a wonderfully detailed, scaled-down replica of the Temple of Athena Nike.

The Gallery of 5th century BC to the 5th century AD 

Displaying many of the statues and votives (dedications to the gods) found around the Acropolis, this gallery includes representations and sculptures of gods, heroes, mythological themes and portraits of famous men, from the Classical, Hellenistic and Roman periods.

• TOP FLOOR

The Parthenon Gallery

The top-floor dedication to the Parthenon’s metopes, frieze and pediments is rightly the highlight of the Acropolis Museum. You can walk right around the frieze (with original marbles completed by replicas of those taken or destroyed), admiring the intricacy of the marblework. And when you’re done, you’ll look at the Parthenon itself – visible through the northern windows – in a whole new light.