Visit Athens Guide
The National Archaeological Museum
The National Archaeological Museum Athens keeps at Patission 44 is the largest in Greece, and it holds the objects most people picture when they think of the ancient world: the gold of Mycenae, the Antikythera mechanism, the wall paintings lifted from under the ash at Akrotiri, eleven thousand things spanning 7000 BC to AD 500. It is twenty minutes north of the ancient centre, and it opens at 13:00 on Tuesdays. This page has the hours and the highlights as checked in Q3 2026; the wider plan is on the Athens city guide homepage.
Quick answer How long it takes, and the day that opens at one
The National Archaeological Museum costs €20 full and €10 reduced, needs no timed slot and takes about two hours for the highlights. It opens at 13:00 on Tuesdays, every week of the year.
Key takeaways
- Do not plan a Tuesday morning here. The hours has the full week; the Acropolis or an Agora fits that morning instead.
- Five things carry the visit: what to see routes them in the order the galleries run.
- It is a different museum from the Acropolis Museum in almost every way — national rather than local, older building, far bigger collection, twenty minutes further out.
- In summer it runs to 20:00 six days a week, so it is a good late-afternoon escape from the heat when the sites have closed.
- It is free on the state free-entry days, including two Sundays a month in winter — the free-entry page has the calendar.
Key facts
Opening hours
| 1 May – 31 Oct, Mon and Wed–Sun | 08:00–20:00 |
|---|---|
| 1 May – 31 Oct, Tuesday | 13:00–20:00 |
| 1–30 Apr and 1 Nov – 31 Mar, Mon and Wed–Sun | 08:30–15:30 |
| 1–30 Apr and 1 Nov – 31 Mar, Tuesday | 13:00–20:00 |
| Last admission | —–30 minutes before closing |
Closed 1 January, 25 March, 1 May, Orthodox Easter Sunday, 25 and 26 December
Admission
- Adult
- €20
- Reduced
- €10
- Free
- 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, the last weekend of September, 28 October, and the first and third Sunday from 1 November to 31 March
Planning it
- Time needed
- Not stated by the museum; our routing: 2 hours for the highlights, half a day for the whole thing
- Book ahead
- Recommended — a few days
- Address
- 28is Oktovriou (Patission) 44, 106 82 Athens
The ways in, priced from hh.gr and GetYourGuide on 1 September 2026. The museum is state-run, so it uses the same platform and the same free-entry calendar as the archaeological sites.
| Option | Price | Includes | Cancel | Book |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Official ticket | €20 full / €10 reduced | The whole museum | Per the platform's terms | Official site |
| Acropolis plus up to five sites | Listed at €36 | This museum listed among the options | Per listing | Check Availability |
| Acropolis e-ticket with add-ons | Listed at €36 | This museum offered as an add-on | Free cancellation per listing | Check Availability |
| Mythology highlights walk | From €45 | The rock and the ancient centre; not this museum | Per listing | Check Availability |
At €20 for a collection you could spend a day in, this is the best value of any ticket in Athens per hour inside. It is also the one big museum the reseller bundles treat as an afterthought, because it is twenty minutes from everything else they sell.
Ways in to the National Archaeological Museum
The cards behind the table, with the operator's own rating and review count.
from €36
Athens: Acropolis Ticket & Heritage Sites + Acropolis Audio
The bundle the official shop does not sell: the Acropolis slot plus entry to up to five more archaeological sites, including both Agoras and the Temple of Olympian Zeus.
Check Availability
from €36
Athens: Acropolis Ticket & Audio Guide + Free Cancellation
Acropolis e-ticket with free cancellation and optional add-ons for the Acropolis Museum, the two Agoras, Kerameikos, the Temple of Zeus or the National Archaeological Museum.
Check Availability
from €45
Athens: Acropolis and Mythology Highlights Small Group Tour
The rock plus the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Ancient Agora, told through the myths attached to each: a comprehensive first day on foot.
Check AvailabilityPrices, ratings and details are the platform's own, checked in Q3 2026; euro figures are the listed prices — the platform bills in your account's currency.
What to see, in gallery order
The museum is arranged by period and material rather than by fame, so the famous things are scattered. These five are worth walking to directly.
The Mycenaean gold
Straight ahead from the entrance: the treasures Schliemann lifted out of the royal shaft graves at Mycenae in 1876 — gold masks, inlaid daggers, rock-crystal, a whole room of them. The best-known piece is the death mask he called Agamemnon, which is about three centuries too early to be any such person. The room is the single most concentrated display of Bronze Age wealth anywhere.
The Antikythera mechanism
Corroded bronze fragments in a case, recovered in 1901 from a Roman-era shipwreck off Antikythera. It is a geared analogue computer for predicting the positions of the sun and moon and the dates of eclipses and games — nothing of comparable mechanical complexity survives from anywhere for another thousand years. The same wreck produced the Antikythera Youth, a bronze that stands nearby.
The Thera wall paintings
Upstairs: the frescoes lifted from Akrotiri on Santorini, buried under volcanic ash in the sixteenth century BC and preserved by it — boxing boys, antelopes, a fleet. They are the only substantial body of Aegean Bronze Age painting that survives, and they were made before the Mycenaean gold downstairs.
The bronzes
The Artemision Bronze, a two-metre god poised to throw, pulled out of the sea off Cape Artemision — nobody agrees whether it is Zeus with a thunderbolt or Poseidon with a trident, because whatever was in the hand is missing. And the Horse and Jockey of Artemision, from the same wreck: a small boy riding flat out, one of very few surviving ancient bronzes with real movement in it.
The kouroi and the grave stelae
The long halls of Archaic kouroi — rigid, smiling, life-size young men — let you watch Greek sculpture learn to move across a century and a half. Beyond them, the classical grave reliefs, many from Kerameikos, where the handshake between the dead and the living does more with less than almost anything in the building.
Hours, the Tuesday, and getting there
Read on the official page on 1 September 2026. This is the one state museum with a per-weekday timetable.
The week
From 1 May to 31 October: Monday and Wednesday to Sunday 08:00 to 20:00, and Tuesday 13:00 to 20:00. In April and from 1 November to 31 March: Monday and Wednesday to Sunday 08:30 to 15:30, and Tuesday still 13:00 to 20:00. Last admission is thirty minutes before closing.
Why the Tuesday matters
It is the same in both seasons and it catches people every week: the museum is shut until one in the afternoon while every archaeological site in the city has been open since eight. It is also the one day in winter when the museum is open in the evening, so a Tuesday is a good museum afternoon and a wasted museum morning. The opening-hours page lines this up against everything else.
Getting there
The museum stands on 28is Oktovriou, also called Patission, at number 44. Victoria station on Line 1 is about seven minutes away and Omonia on Lines 1 and 2 about ten; it is roughly twenty-five minutes on foot from Monastiraki. The neighbourhood is workaday rather than picturesque, which is part of why the museum is quieter than its collection deserves.
Inside
There is a shop, a café that hosts changing displays of contemporary art, and a garden courtyard. Two hours covers the five highlights above without hurrying; a full visit is half a day, and the building is large enough that it is worth deciding in advance which halves you are skipping.
National Archaeological Museum map
The entrance, the nearest stations, and what is within a short walk.
Next stop from the National Archaeological Museum
Walk minutes are our estimates from the GPS distances.
Exarchia
The student and political quarter, and where to eat cheaply near the museum. Exarchia is described badly by most guidebooks.
6 min walkAcropolis Museum
The other big museum, and a completely different one. The Acropolis Museum is €20 and open to 22:00 on Fridays.
25 min walk or metroLycabettus Hill
East and uphill for the wide city view. Lycabettus has a funicular if the climb is not appealing.
25 min walkNational Archaeological Museum questions
Is the National Archaeological Museum worth it?
For anyone with more than two days, yes — it holds the Mycenaean gold, the Antikythera mechanism and the Thera frescoes, none of which is anywhere else. What to see routes the five things that carry a visit.
How much time do you need there?
Two hours for the highlights, half a day for a full visit. The collection runs to about eleven thousand exhibits, so deciding what to skip is part of the plan.
How does this differ from the museum below the rock?
This is the national collection from all over Greece, from 7000 BC to AD 500, in a nineteenth-century building twenty minutes north of the centre. The Acropolis Museum is a single-site museum holding what was found on and around the rock, in a modern building ten minutes below it. Different tickets, different organisations, different free days.
Is there free entry?
Yes, on the state free-entry days: five fixed dates and the first and third Sunday of each month from November to March. The free-entry page has the list and which dates are worth it.
What time does it open on Tuesday?
13:00, all year, in both the summer and winter timetables — and it then stays open until 20:00. Put a site in that morning instead; the hours section has the week.
Where is the Mask of Agamemnon?
In the Mycenaean gallery, straight ahead from the entrance, with the rest of the shaft grave material Schliemann excavated in 1876. The name is his; the mask is about three centuries earlier than any Trojan War date.
Reviewed Q3 2026 (July–September 2026); next review Q4 2026. Prices, hours and terms are set by the venue or operator and confirmed at checkout.
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