What And Where Is The Acropolis Museum?

The Acropolis Museum is focused on the archaeological artifacts found at the Acropolis of Athens. The museum was solely built to display the found artifacts, and it is located in Athens, Greece on the South-eastern slope of the Acropolis hill. The Museum was first opened to the public on June 20, 2009. The Acropolis of Athens is an old Greek citadel sitting on a rocky hill overlooking Athens city. The Acropolis comprises the remains of several ancient buildings of historical and architectural significance to Greece, and Parthenon is the most famous building.

The Museum Building

The museum was designed by Bernard Tschumi whose design was selected from several others in a competition. The museum is built on an archaeological site, and most of the walls and floors are made of transparent glass so one can view the on-going excavation below the building. The building has three levels which are used to display the artifacts and a fourth level which is shared by a café, museum shop, and offices. The artifacts from the slope of the Acropolis are exhibited on the first level, and the hall on the first level was made to look like the ascent to the Acropolis; it is a rectangle and has a sloping floor. The trapezoidal hall houses the ancient findings, sculptures, and artifacts from other Acropolis buildings. Visitors are usually directed to start the tour of the museum from the top level as they work their way down. The museum’s top level is positioned in a way that it assumes the same angle of the old temple on the Acropolis. The top level has the Parthenon marbles on display and is named the Parthenon hall. The hall’s columns have been given the same spacing as those of the ancient temple; the walls are made of glass, and this allows natural light to shine on and illuminate the Parthenon marbles as it used to in the old temple. The 48 columns in the hall are built on a framework of the old temple, and the marbles are displayed at eye level at the end of the columns. One can see the old temple on the Acropolis from the Parthenon hall’s northern side.

Award Winning Museum

The museum has won several awards which include the British Guild of Travel Writers Award in 2010 and the American Institute of Architects Award for its architecture in 2011. Other awards include the International Association of Lighting Designers Award of Excellence and Sustainability in 2010, the Keck Award in 2012, and it also ranked ninth out of the 25 best museums in the world for 2016 in TripAdvisor.

Visiting The Museum

A €5 entrance fee is charged to access the museum but no fees are charged during the International Museum Day and the full moon nights in August, and on those days the museum is open until late. The museum has one of the five digital classrooms located in a Museum in Europe; the classroom was set up in 2016 by Samsung. The museum is one of the most toured sites in Greece.