National Archaeological Museum Athens: The Complete Visitor Guide

The National Archaeological Museum in Athens is one of the great museums of the world — not in the sense of ambition, but in the sense of what it actually contains. The collected material culture of ancient Greek civilization, assembled over 150 years, fills a vast neoclassical building in the Exarcheia district north of the city centre. The depth of the collection is staggering: it's possible to spend a full day here and still leave with rooms unvisited.

The Mycenaean collection is the first-order priority: the gold death masks (the "Mask of Agamemnon" found by Schliemann at Mycenae in 1876, which almost certainly doesn't belong to Agamemnon but is extraordinary regardless), the gold funerary vessels, the inlaid bronze daggers, and the carved ivory figures from shaft graves dating to 1600–1100 BC. These objects make the mythology of the Iliad tangible in a way that no book achieves.

The Antikythera Mechanism — the world's first analogue computer, a bronze astronomical device from about 100 BC salvaged from a shipwreck — is displayed in the Antikythera room with supporting exhibits. The Artemision Bronze (a 460 BC bronze statue of Zeus or Poseidon, arms extended, mid-throw) and the Horse and Jockey of Artemision (a magnificent 150 BC bronze of a jockey and racehorse) are the sculptural highlights of the collection.

Book tickets online. The museum is open daily except Tuesdays. Allow at least three hours; serious visitors will want five. The museum café in the garden courtyard is good enough for lunch. The neighbourhood around the museum — Exarcheia — is Athens' most interesting for an afternoon walk afterward.