National Archaeological Museum

Lonely Planet review

One of the world's great museums, the National Archaeological Museum houses the most important finds from Greece's archaeological sites. The museum's tour de force is the collection of Mycenaean Antiquities, which is filled with gleaming gold. The star attraction is the Mask of Agamemnon.

The Neolithic Collection includes finds from Thessaly, as well as pottery, figurines and jewellery from Troy. The Cycladic Collection includes a lifesize Cycladic figurine from Amorgos (the largest ever found), while other rooms hold archaic, classical, late classical, Hellenistic and Roman period sculpture, bronze and pottery.

Other exquisite objects of antiquity include elaborately decorated mummy cases. Of particular note is the Thira Exhibition, consisting of spectacular Minoan frescoes unearthed at Akrotiri on the island of Santorini.

Other masterpieces include a marble statue from Delos of Aphrodite with Pan and Eros circa 100BC, and a bronze statue believed to be Poseidon or Zeus dated to 460BC. There is also an amusing sculpture of Aphrodite raising her sandal to ward off the frisky Pan.