Event: Greece - Athens

National Archaeological Museum

When:	Daily
Where:	National Archaeological Museum
Costs:	€7; concessions €3; children free
Opening Hours:	Mon 1pm-7.30pm; Tue-Fri 8am-7.30pm; Sat & Sun 8.30am-3pm

Home to the world's finest collection of ancient Greek art, the marble-floored National Archaeological Museum, near Omonia, displays larger-than-life sculptures of heroes from Greek mythology, and intricately crafted gold jewellery and weaponry, including Agamemnon's 3600-year-old death mask.

The National Archaeological Museum is the most important archaeological museum in Greece, and one of more than 50 museums which deal with antiquities in the Hellenic region. It has one of the richest archaeological collections in the world and holds culturally valuable remains from all the diverse cultures which flourished in Greece.

Permanent collections are grouped by the following titles: Prehistoric Items, Sculpture, Pottery and Minor Art, Bronzes and Egyptian Art. Highlights include the Diadoumenos, a bronze Roman copy of a 430 BC sculpture of a young athlete found in Delos; the statue of a Nereid (a mermaid of the Mediterranean) found in Epidaurus and dated to 380 BC and a marble sculptural group of Aphrodite and Pan found on Delos and dating to 100 BC.

As for pottery, there are many black-figure, red-figure and white attic vases decorated with fearsome Gorgons, cavorting nymphs and scenes of wrestling. The Egyptian Section includes a statue of a hippo made from black and white granite which is dated to 3150 BC and a seated statue of Rahotep, the royal scribe. Dated to 2465 BC and made from rose granite, it is nearly a metre high and was found in the Sakkara necropolis.

The museum also hosts changing temporary exhibitions.