Visiting for the first time Athens, you can easily get distracted by the abundance of archaelogical museums in the city centre. But a real history-buff should visit a couple of archaeological museums out of Athens.
During antiquity, Attica region and the Saronic islands used to be a flourishing place of commerce, culture and eventually history. Missing the respective archaeological museums out of Athens, will leave your historical continuum of ancient Greece incomplete.
So take our blog article as a guide and jump out of the comfort zone of Athens!
Archaeological Museum of Brauron
To begin with this archaeology tour on the outskirts of Athens, Brauron will be the first stop. Recommended as a pleasant surprise, the archaeological museum of Brauron stands next to the ancient Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron. It is located in the valley of Brauron, in the region of Mesogeia.
The archaeological site of the Sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron is one of the most important ancient sanctuaries of Attica. Mostly dedicated to the protection of little children and pregnant women, ancient Greeks visited the sanctuary in masses in order to pray for their beloved and worship the goddess. In the museum, the exhibition includes findings from neolithic ages up to early Mycenaen times (1600 BC). Don’t miss the of note statuette of a young girl “arktos” holding a rabbit.
A morning excursion to both the archaeological site and museum will be a top-notch experience. Moreover, you can combine it with a dive in the nearby beaches of Brauron.
Archaeological Museum of Aegina
Aegina and its museums have been in the spotlight in a previously blog article, dedicated to Aegina’s greatest museums. However, Aegina’s archaeological museum deserves a second reference among the most worth-visit arhaeological museum out of Athens.
It is the first museum of the post-revolutionary Greece, back in 1829. The first Greek governor, I. Kapodistrias was its creator. The archaeological museum of Aegina hosted several archaeological findings of then independent Greece, since Aegina was the first greek capital.
Right now, the museum is located next to the archaeological site of Kolona. Among its three exhibition rooms, it hosts a collection of ancient jewelery, pottery and sculpture, coins, weapons and bronze vessels. The most important exhibit is the statue of Aegina’s Sphinx. However, soon the museum will move back to its first residence, the Kapodistrian Orphanage. There it will take its new name as the “Timeless Museum of Aegina”.
Archaeological Museum & Site of Marathon
The archaeological museum of Marathon is located in the region of Vrana in Marathonas, in the eastern Attica. It started accepting visitors in 1975 and it contains 5 rooms and a roofed patio. Among the exhibits of the archaeological museum of Marathon, visitors can see findings from the Marathon battle (490 BC), the surrounding area of Marathon and the Sanctuary of the Egyptian gods in Nea Makri.
Visiting the museum and within the ticket price, visitors can also see the two tumuli of Marathon. The first one, closest to the museum, is the tomb of the inhumed bodies of Plataeans, who died during the Marathon battle. The second one, 2.5km eastern of the museum, is a burial mound (“Soros”). This mound houses the ashes of 192 Athenians who died during the Marathon battle. Alongside with the tumuli, the plain of Marathon is complete with a victorian column, which Athenians erected to commemorate their victory against Persians.