10 Best Museums in Athens

The Acropolis Museum is, surprisingly, a newer museum in the city, which sits right next to the Acropolis and displays archaeological finds discovered there while showcasing live archaeological digs below. This museum is not only next door to the Acropolis itself, but it also sits above an ongoing dig, and the glass floors let you watch the archaeologists excavate the ancient neighbourhood beneath it. It has 3 storeys of permanent collections filled with documents, photographs, artefacts and ephemera.

After exploring this wonderful spot (and the actual Acropolis next door), you can visit the cafe and gift shop. Guided tours of the museum are available. It's right in the heart of the city centre.

The Ancient Agora of Athens combines an actual archaeological site with a museum famous for its possession of the Stoa of Attalos. This site was restored in the 1950s by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and displays artefacts in chronological order dating back to the Neolithic period and ranging through the Ottoman rule period. The focus, however, is on Athenian Democracy, the ancestor of all modern democratic thought. The 2nd floor has an open exhibit space with Athenian sculpture and great views of the Agora itself as we as the Acropolis and Pnyx.

The museum is in the heart of the Athens city centre for easy access. Guided tours are available.

The National Archaeological Museum is the oldest archaeological museum in Greece and offers more than 11,000 exhibits of Greek art and artefacts from neolithic times through late antiquity. The collection is astounding and showcases everything from ancient household items and pottery to elaborate sculptures. It's so vast that it's easy to spend an entire day just exploring everything on display, and you still might not see it all.

Whether you take a guided tour or explore on your own after you're done, you can visit the cafe and gift shop for a meal and souvenir. Like many museums in Athens, it's located in the city centre.

The Technopolis City of Athens is a museum in the former Athens gasworks and draws over 900,000 visitors every year with a wide range of cultural events and happenings. Here you'll see live music ranging from jazz to rock to hip hop. You can attend kids' workshops and arts and crafts fairs. Visit a startup business incubator and see the location of a local municipal radio station. The gasworks control room and original mechanical equipment have been restored and are on display with education about its history and workings.

Occasionally, the viewing tower is also open to visitors. This museum is a one-of-a-kind cultural hub in the heart of the Athens city centre.

The Benaki Museum of Greek Culture houses permanent art collections from prehistoric, ancient Greek and Roman times, along with Byzatine art. There is a collection of historic heirlooms and a collection of 6,000 works of art from mostly 17th- to 19th-century European artists. Rotating exhibits round out the wealth of artwork displayed here.

Antonis Benakis was the founder of the museum. The collections are housed in a magnificent example of a neoclassical-style building. It was first erected in 1895 as the Harokopos Mansion and has had many renovations and refurbishments through the years. The museum is located 7 minutes north-east of the city centre.

The Museum of Illusions Athens is a fun and family-friendly, ultramodern museum that allows you to engage, explore and challenge your senses in a world of optical illusion. You can navigate a vortex tunnel where you're unsure which way is up and down. You can walk into an upside-down room where you'll feel like you're walking on the ceiling. You'll see structures that look right-side-up but inside-out and challenge every one of your senses. You'll feel as though you're defying gravity and spinning through space.

This museum is a self-guided one, and you and the kids alike will have a ball working your way through one exhibit after the next. It's in the city centre.

The Byzantine and Christian Museum is home to one of the largest collections of Byzantine art globally, with rare, preserved artefacts on display in a Florentine-style palace. The thousands of artefacts range from the 3rd century to the modern era. They include such iconic pieces as a mosaic of the Virgin Mary from ancient Constantinople and frescoes, ancient scriptures, coins, paintings, and many others. The museum was founded in 1914, making it a historic institution.

As with many of Athens's museums, it's located in the heart of the city centre. The museum also has a cafe and restaurant onsite and a museum gift shop.

The Museum of Cycladic Art is dedicated to studying ancient civilisations across the Aegean and Cyprus with a focus on the 3rd century B.C.E. It's divided into 2 buildings connected by a walking bridge. It houses permanent collections in the main building, with rotating and visiting exhibits in the adjacent neoclassical Stathatos Palace building. The main building encompasses 4 floors, and the highlight is a rare collage of ancient Cycladic art, Cypriot art and Greek art.

The rotating exhibits put a new perspective on ancient art by showcasing cutting-edge contemporary art from these regions juxtaposed against the ancient world. The museum is in the heart of the city centre.

The Hellenic Motor Museum showcases a private collection of rare motor vehicles in a gorgeous ultramodern building with dozens of interesting, iconic and unique cars. For those looking to take a break from the ancient world, this is the place to catch something modern. You can even see a sports car that once belonged to Robert Plant, singer of Led Zeppelin. The museum is located in the heart of the city centre, just blocks from other museums you'll want to visit.

You can also view a fascinating display covering the wheel's history or visit an automotive workshop from the early 20th century. Finally, you can see a gift shop to grab a souvenir of your trip.

The National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST) is appropriately a newer museum in Athens, showcasing over 1,300 artworks in just about every medium. It's housed in a former brewery that's been refurbished as a modern art gallery and lets you see everything from paintings and sculpture to drawings, photographs and even film and multimedia presentations. It's 4 floors of exhibits covering 3D artwork, architecture, industrial design and fascinating temporary, visiting and rotating exhibits.

The artists on display here are both of Greek and international heritage and form some of the most important creators of the modern, postmodern and contemporary eras. It's all right in the heart of the Athens city centre.