National Archaeological Museum, Athens: the collections and how a visit works

The short answer

Hellenic Heritage places the National Archaeological Museum at 44 Patission (28th October) Street in the centre of Athens.[4] It is a separate institution from the Acropolis Museum. Its collections page describes a panorama of ancient Greek culture from prehistory to late antiquity in more than 11,000 exhibits. The same page lists six collections: Prehistoric Antiquities, Sculpture, Metalwork, Vases and Minor Arts, Egyptian Antiquities and Cypriot Antiquities.[1] Tickets are sold on tickets.hh.gr, which calls itself the official ticket store and requires timed entry.[5]

The museum's own pages, Hellenic Heritage's page and the Ministry of Culture's undated Odysseus page do not agree on several things, from the number of exhibits to the dates of the summer season. Where they differ, this guide says so rather than choosing.

What each collection covers

The museum began, its collections page says, as the place meant to receive the nineteenth-century excavations, mainly from Attica, and grew into a central national museum with finds from across the Greek world.[1] Each collection has its own section on that page:

• Prehistoric Antiquities. Works of the Aegean civilisations up to around 1050 BC, from the Neolithic and Bronze Age of mainland Greece, the islands and Troy. The page names the treasures of the royal tombs of Mycenae, the Linear B tablets, the Cycladic marble figurines and the wall paintings of Thera.[1] Hellenic Heritage adds that the Thera paintings come from the prehistoric city of Akrotiri, which it says was buried under volcanic ash after the great eruption of the sixteenth century BC.[4] Other official pages date the burial to the seventeenth century BC; the Minoan and Mycenaean explainer sets out the disagreement.
• Sculpture. About 16,000 sculptures tracing Greek sculpture from 700 BC to the 5th century AD, from sanctuaries, cemeteries and public buildings. The core of the collection was formed in 1874.[1]
• Metalwork. Bronze statues, figurines, vessels and weapons, and the finds from the Antikythera shipwreck, among them the Mechanism, which the page describes as a scientific instrument of the 1st century BC used for astronomical and calendar forecasts.[1]
• Vases and Minor Arts. About 6,000 objects on display, from Greek pottery of the 11th to the 4th century BC to the Stathatos and Vlastos-Serpieris collections, glass, and gold and silver jewellery. The page names finds from sanctuaries including Sounion in Attica.[1]
• Egyptian Antiquities. Built on two bequests, from Ioannis Dimitriou in 1880 and Alexandros Rostovich in 1904.[1]
• Cypriot Antiquities. Around 850 works from the Early Bronze Age to the Roman period; the permanent exhibition opened on 18 March 2009.[1]

Where the official pages disagree

Three official sources describe the museum, and they do not tell one story.

How many collections. The collections page's own introduction speaks of "the five major permanent collections", folding Egyptian and Eastern antiquities into one, while the sections below it list six, with Cypriot Antiquities separate.[1] The Ministry's Odysseus page also counts five.[6]

How many exhibits. The museum's collections page gives more than 11,000 exhibits and Hellenic Heritage 11,000.[4][1] The Odysseus page says more than 20,000.[6]

When it was founded. Hellenic Heritage says the museum was founded in 1866.[4] The museum's history page says it was founded in 1829, with its first seat on Aegina, and that 1866 is when construction of the present building began. Both date the opening of the building to 1889.[4][2]

Date ranges. The collections page's introduction starts the prehistoric collection in the 6th millennium BC and its prehistoric section in the 7th millennium. Odysseus describes the sculpture collection as running "from the seventh to the fifth centuries BC", where the museum's own page runs it to the 5th century AD.[6][1]

XTOUR's reading is that the Odysseus text is older and the museum's own collection sections are the fuller account, but XTOUR does not correct any of these pages.

The building and what happened to it

The museum's history page traces the present building to 1866, on land donated by E. Tositsa with sponsorship from the Bernardakis family of St. Petersburg, built to L. Lange's designs with E. Ziller's changes to the facade. It opened to the public in 1889 and was extended to the east between 1932 and 1939.[2]

During the Second World War its antiquities were boxed and buried in basements and elsewhere; the museum reopened in 1947 and completed the re-exhibition of its collections in 1964. A caption on the same page, in Greek, records the hiding of the kouros of Sounion, Sculpture Collection number 2720, in 1940-1941. After damage in the 1999 earthquake, the galleries were renovated between 2002 and 2004, and the permanent exhibitions reopened in stages from 2004 to 2009.[2]

The Odysseus page says the museum functions as a Special Regional Service of the Ministry of Culture.[6]

Tickets and entry

The museum's ticket page on tickets.hh.gr calls itself the official ticket store and says timed entry is required. According to that page, a ticket is valid for a single entry on the selected date and time, can be changed up to two hours before the visit and at most twice, is non-refundable, and can be shown in digital or printed form; visitors with reduced or free tickets must show ID or documentation at entry.[5]

The museum's own visit regulation adds what happens inside.[3]

• It gives priority access to visitors who bought their ticket online.[3]
• Luggage and any object larger than 30 x 30 x 15 cm go to the cloakroom.[3]
• Individual galleries may be closed without notice for essential work, and the regulation says no refund is given in that case.[3]

Two practical rules differ between the pages. On last entry, the museum's regulation says ticket sales end 30 minutes before closing and Hellenic Heritage's page gives last admission 30 minutes before closing, while the ticket store says last entry is 20 minutes before closing.[5] On seasons, the museum's visit page runs its summer season from 4 May to 15 November 2026; Hellenic Heritage's page lists summer hours from 1 April to 31 October, with April on a different schedule from May to October; and the Odysseus page runs summer from 1 April to 31 October.[7][4] The prices on the Odysseus page also differ from Hellenic Heritage's, and Odysseus lists a reduced winter price, while the museum's own page says the fee stays the same all year.[7][3]

XTOUR's reading: in April, in the first days of May and in the first half of November, the museum's own visit page and the time slots offered on the ticket store are the two places to check. Special days can also change the schedule: a Hellenic Heritage notice of May 2026 said the museum would close early on 25 May 2026 for the opening of a temporary exhibition.[8] How such notices are published, and the other reasons a Greek state site or museum closes for a day, are explained in what Greek archaeological site opening depends on.

Not the Acropolis Museum

The National Archaeological Museum holds finds from across Greece and beyond, sold on its own ticket.[5][1] The Acropolis Museum is a separate institution. The Acropolis or Acropolis Museum guide explains that museum, and the Acropolis and Athens ticket guide explains who issues tickets for the archaeological sites.

Where the collections lead

Several other XTOUR pages pick up threads from these galleries:

• The Cycladic figurines are explained in Cycladic figurines explained, which also covers the separate Museum of Cycladic Art.
• The Mycenae tomb treasures and Linear B tablets belong to the story told in Minoan and Mycenaean explained, which also discusses Akrotiri, where the Thera wall paintings were found; the site of Mycenae is covered in Mycenae, Epidaurus and Olympia by base.
• Finds from Sounion are in the museum's collections, as the pages above note; the site is covered in Sounion and the Temple of Poseidon.

For the city itself, see the Athens destination page.

What XTOUR does not tell you

XTOUR does not publish the museum's prices, opening hours, closing days or accessibility arrangements; the museum's visit page and Hellenic Heritage publish them, and they disagree in places, as set out above. XTOUR does not say how long a visit takes, which galleries are open on a given day or how busy the museum is. It does not sell tickets.