The National Archaeological Museum offers its visitors free audio tours organized thematically around topical subjects. There are a total of 32 guided tours in six languages: Greek, English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. At any given time, nine different thematic tours will be available, with periodic changes in the available themes.
Each thematic tour includes specific points that focus on exhibits related to the theme, and can be completed within a specific time period. Each tour provides guidance to help the visitor to navigate within the halls of the country's largest museum.
If you wish to be notified of changes to the thematic guided tours of the Museum, we encourage you to create a personal account, either online on the Museum's website or on-site at one of the digital infrastructure stations within the Museum, and indicate this in your preferences. This account may also be useful for a number of other services. You can create your account here:
Register to our Digital Services
How the thematic audio tours work
Upon your arrival at the Museum, you can request an audio-guided tour device from the reception area specially designed for this purpose, choosing one of the thematic tours in the language of your choice.
At the same time, you will receive a brochure to help you navigate your route through the Museum. This brochure can also be downloaded to your mobile device (phone or tablet).
Each theme focuses on specific points (exhibits) of the exhibition, which you will recognize from the extensive signage that has been placed in the exhibition spaces. If, during the course of a thematic tour, you are interested in getting to know an exhibit that is not included in the thematic tour you have selected, but has an audio tour sign, you can enter its number into your audio device and listen to the narration for that object as well.
The Islands of the Muses
To supplement the thematic tours of specific exhibits and artifacts, thematic videos have been created that include the ancient works in the broader context of the theme. These narratives attempt to integrate each topic into a broader conceptual, historical, religious, and social context, in order to highlight the role of ancient material remains in our understanding of the past. For this reason, each tour, at some point along its course, includes a short video narrative summarizing the topic. These stations are called “islands” of information and each one bears the name of one of the nine Muses. The printed brochure for each theme includes a map for the theme you have chosen and the location of the Muse. When you reach this point, touch the screen and you can listen to the Muse's narration in the language of your choice from your audio guide device.
Below you can explore the thematic guided audio tours, which feature over 300 masterpieces from the Museum's exhibits:
In this tour you will get to know the history of the founding of the National Archaeological Museum and the formation of its Collections from the 19th century to this day. The Museum is the largest one in Greece and one of the most emblematic ones on international level.
Duration: >62 min • Stops: 15 • Length: ~870 m (2,851 ft)
In this tour you will get to know unique artworks of the Prehistoric Collection, which remains, on an international level, the richest and most important one of its kind. You will admire representative exhibits of the great civilizations that flourished in the Aegean world from the 6th millennium to 1100 BC.
Duration: >62 min • Stops: 15 • Length: ~870 m (2,850 ft) • Collections: 4
In this tour you will get to know unique artworks of the Sculpture Collection, through which we follow the evolution of the ancient Greek sculpture from 700 BC to the 5th cent. AD. The works come from sanctuaries, necropolises and public buildings of Attica, East Mainland Greece, the Peloponnese and the Aegean islands. Considerable also is the number of sculptures from Thessaly, West Greece, Macedonia, Thrace and Cyprus.
Duration: >120 min • Stops: 14 • Length: ~450 m (1,466 ft) • Collections: 1
In this tour you will get to know unique artworks from the Collection of Metalwork, which is one of the richest and most important collections of ancient metal works of the Greek civilization worldwide. Finds from pan-Hellenic sanctuaries, necropolises and settlements highlight important aspects of the public and private life of ancient Greeks.
Duration: >78 min • Stops: 35 • Length: ~320 m (1,050 ft)
In this tour you will get to know unique artworks from the Vase and Minor Arts Collection that cover without interruption the evolution of Greek pottery and painting from the 11th to the 3rd cent. BC, from every corner of the Greek World. There also are exhibits from important sanctuaries, such as Sounion in Attica, Thermo in Aetolia, the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia in Laconia, the Heraion of Perachora in Corinthia and the Heraion of Argos in Argolis.
Duration: >80 min • Stops: 38 • Length: ~630 m (2,060 ft) • Collections: 3
In this tour you will get to know works of the Cypriot Antiquities Collection, which represent all chronological periods of Cypriot history and art from 2500 BC to the 4th cent. AD.
Duration: >60 min • Stops: 13 • Length: ~320 m (1,060 ft) • Collections: 3
In this tour you will get to know unique works of the Egyptian Collection, which holds an important position worldwide, thanks to the wealth, quality and rarity of its objects.
Duration: >120 min • Stops: 12 • Length: 324 m (1,060 ft) • Collections: 1
The tour is a fascinating journey in time through selected works from the permanent exhibitions of the Museum, that span seven millenniums. These are creations, which have transcended the narrow geographical borders of Greece, have risen to international treasures of art and continue to this day to inspire the education, thought and creativity of humanity.
Duration: >140 min • Stops: 57 • Collections: All
In this tour you will get to know unique works that are related to the wonderful world of the Homeric Epics, the Iliad and Odyssey. Up to our time, artistic inspiration from the Homeric epics in all kinds of art remains alive, underlining the diachronic character of their messages and symbolisms.
Duration: >80 min • Stops: 35 • Length: 780 m (2,590 ft) • Collections: 4
In this tour, through unique artworks you will get to know the relations of the ancient Greeks with the people of the Mediterranean, the East and the West. Great travellers, the Greeks developed a powerful maritime identity, which brought them in contact with faraway lands and people.
Duration: >70 min • Stops: 42 • Length: 1100 m (3,600 ft) • Collections: 4
In this tour, through unique works, you will get to know the history of writing, from the first writing systems of the second millennium BC to the adoption of the Greek alphabet. Writing is one of the most important achievements of human intelligence and the base for the evolution of civilization.
Duration: >80 min • Stops: 45 • Length: 1000 m (3,280 ft) • Collections: 5
In this tour, through unique artworks, you will get to know the perceptions and rituals that relate to the Afterlife. Life and death, the duality of the human existence, matter and soul, the anxiety of death and the afterlife experience and punishment are encountered early on in the ancient Greek myths, in the Homeric epics and the pre-Socratic philosophy.
Duration: >90 min • Stops: 49 • Length: 708 m (2,320 ft) • Collections: 3
In this tour, through unique artworks, you will get to know aspects of cult, beliefs and gods of the ancient Greeks. The need to interpret nature and its phenomena, the inexplicable aspect of death and the countless challenges of survival led human beings to believe in the presence of powers that surpass and determine their earthly existence.
Duration: >80 min • Stops: 38 • Length: 950 m (3,120 ft) • Collections: 4
In this tour, through unique artworks, you will get to know aspects of the world of children and the education of youths in antiquity. In ancient city-states, the birth and upbringing of a child was of importance to all, since it secured the survival of its household, its generation, but also of the city itself.
Duration: >90 min • Stops: 53 • Length: ~1010 m (3,320 ft) • Collections: 6
In this tour, through unique artworks, you will get to know aspects from the world of women, mortal and immortal ones. In ancient Greece, women, as a rule, were devoted to the management and maintenance of the household and their generation, and not only that…
Duration: >75 min • Stops: 38 • Length: ~950 m (3,120 ft) • Collections: 5
In this tour, through unique artworks, you will get to know the sensual world of beautification in antiquity. The need to be beautiful, relevant to the world of senses, is closely linked with the Greek civilization and its origins.
Duration: >90 min • Stops: 48 • Length: ~950 m (3,100 ft) • Collections: 7
In this tour, through unique artworks, you will get to know the birth of Eros and Love and the role it enacted in antiquity. In ancient Greek mythology, Eros as a primordial deity pre-exists gods and humans and subsequently determines the fate of mortals and immortals.
Duration: >70 min • Stops: 25 • Length: ~960 m (3,130 ft) • Collections: 6
In this tour, through unique artworks, you will get to know the role of the competitive spirit, fair play and "excellence" in Greek antiquity. Sports and athletic events as well as games, the Olympic Games being the most acclaimed ones, are an important legacy of the Greek civilization to the world.
Duration: >100 min • Stops: 47 • Length: ~720 m (2,350 ft) • Collections: 4
In this tour, through unique artworks, you will get to know the wars that marked the course of history for various reasons. The causes and reasons of wars in antiquity remain a continuous lesson for the understanding of human nature that finds necessary to fight wars and gain glory…
Duration: >70 min • Stops: 38 • Length: ~930 m (3,060 ft) • Collections: 4
In this tour you will get to know the finds from the famous shipwreck of Antikythera. A ship that sank around 70 to 50 BC offered us unique finds, such as the famous bronze statue, known as the "Antikythera Youth" and the unique Mechanism, a wonderful achievement of ancient technology.
Duration: >60 min • Stops: 19 • Length: ~640 m (2,100 ft) • Collections: 4
In this tour, through unique artworks, you will get to know ancient medicine. From Homer and the first testimonies about the application of medicine and surgery on wounds, the god of medicine Asclepius and the famous healing centres of antiquity, we come to Hippocrates, who laid the foundations of scientific medicine.
Duration: >60 min • Stops: 27 • Length: ~780 m (2,560 ft) • Collections: 6
In this tour, through unique artworks, you will get to know ancient music and theatre. Drama is one of the most important achievements of the ancient Greek civilization. The grandeur of theatre and theatrical education, after all, is highlighted by the scattered all over Greece remains of ancient theatres, the theatre of Epidaurus being the most acclaimed one worldwide.
Duration: >70 min • Stops: 36 • Length: ~925 m (3,390 ft) • Collections: 6
In this tour, through selected artworks, you will get to know the raw materials, manufacture and decoration techniques of stone and glass objects, as well as works of minor art. Ancient technology, already advanced in the prehistoric times in Greece, provides irrefutable testimony to the progress and achievements of human thought and reveals one of the most important reasons for which ancient works deserve our admiration.
Duration: >70 min • Stops: 29 • Length: ~810 m (2,660 ft) • Collections: 4
In this tour, through selected artworks, you will get to know aspects of sustainable management of materials and re-use of ancient objects already in the prehistoric period. Ancient practices, but also symbolic-ritual needs, gave a second life to objects, saving time, labour and expense. Today, the recycling of materials and re-use of objects are considered to be necessary conditions for the sustainability of the ecosystem.
Duration: >46 min • Stops: 27 • Length: ~940 m (3,100 ft) • Collections: 4
In this tour, through selected artworks, you will get to know symbolisms, messages and information that are hidden behind iconographical elements and the written testimonies of some objects. The picture talks, because it represents persons and situations or hints at abstract concepts. By contrast, writing has the power to sum up information in the ancient sources and texts, offering us a journey into the social life of ancient civilizations.
Duration: >70 min • Stops: 33 • Length: ~880 m (2,900 ft) • Collections: 5
In this tour, through selected artworks, you will get to know ancient festivals and rites of passage that relate to birth, marriage and death.
Primordial cults, mystic ceremonies and purification rituals encompass the anxiety for securing life, reproduction and fertility, while, at the same time, offer a chance for entertainment, enhancement of social bonds, promotion of a city’s prestige.
Duration: >75 min • Stops: 38 • Length: ~1010 m (3,300 ft) • Collections: 6
In this tour, through selected artworks, you will get to know the fascinating world of figurines. These are small-sized models that are made of various materials and constitute a particularly widespread means of expression of the cult, ideological and artistic concerns of any given period.
Duration: >80 min • Stops: 45 • Length: ~680 m (2,210 ft) • Collections: 4
In this tour, through selected artworks, you will get to know fascinating mythical persons and heroes. In Greek mythology are to be found the beginnings of perceptions about the creation of natural, supernatural or cultural phenomena, archetypes of the collective subconscious, which survived via speech and art up to our time, and influenced the common heritage of universal civilization.
Duration: >70 min • Stops: 34 • Length: ~700 m (2,320 ft) • Collections: 3
In this tour, through unique artworks, you will get to know the legendary world of the Mycenaeans. The Mycenaean civilization may be considered to be the first developed civilization in mainland Greece. It flourished in the Peloponnese and central Greece, from about 1600 to 1100 BC., its boundaries, though, encompassed the entire Helladic world and Cyprus. Its radiance reached as far as the Central and East Mediterranean.
Duration: >80 min • Stops: 42 • Length: ~100 m (2,320 ft) • Collections: 1
In this tour, through unique artworks, you will get to know the «Pompeii of the Aegean». The prehistoric settlement of Akrotiri in Santorini, which was buried under ashes, in the 16th cent. BC. from the eruption of the volcano, was inhabited by a people with high living standard, social, peaceful, joyful, with lively imagination and freedom of expression.
Duration: >20 min • Stops: 18 • Length: 130 m (970 ft) • Collections: 1
In this tour, through unique artworks, you will get to know the birth of large-scale sculpture in the Greek area. Large-scale sculpture appears in the Helladic world at the end of the 7th cent. BC. More precisely, conspicuous works are created, standing on bases, which are dedicated to sanctuaries or serve as grave markers. The human figure gains its position in art and is presented self-existing, powerful and dominant.
Duration: >70 min • Stops: 43 • Length: 400 m (970 ft) • Collections: 1
In this tour, through selected artworks, you will get to know the raw materials, the manufacture and decoration techniques of metal and clay objects as well as figurines. Ancient technology, already advanced in the prehistoric times in Greece, provides irrefutable testimony to the progress and achievements of human thought and reveals one of the most important reasons for which ancient works deserve our admiration.
Duration: >65 min • Stops: 26 • Length: 700 m (2,310 ft) • Collections: 4
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