Greek Museums

With a history and culture that cover the vast distance from the Neolithic period until today, almost without interruption, with thousands of towns and villages that flourished and were then extinguished over the duration of the millennia, and with the fire of civilisation and creativity constantly burning until today, it is only to be expected that, from coast to coast, Greece is filled with Museums. Each town, each island, even each market town or large village, has its own museums, its own collections, unique fragments of its personal past to showcase and preserve - like the apple of one s eyes - even when conditions (in terms of the building, organisation, finances, etc.) make such a task difficult. Whether they are national or local museums, archaeological, historical, folklore, anthropological, art, military or maritime, complete collections or small fragments of civilisation, they all compose a palimpsest of the past, of great value for people today, that makes the theoretical knowledge of the past something that is tangible, visible. As we might expect a complete guide to the Greek Museums could not but be lacking in some respect: it would take thousands of pages to provide a full account just of Greece s world-famous museums: National Archaeological Museum, Museum of Cycladic Art, Acropolis Museum, Olympia, Delphi, the Benaki Museum, the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, the Museum of Prehistoric Thera and many others certainly each need a guide book of their own in order to be described in detail. This is even more true given that, we believe, each museum, each find or exhibit is worthy of attracting the visitor s attention and interest. Even so, the basic information that you will need can all be found in this book: addresses, telephone numbers, web sites, e-mails, maps, coordinates for your GPS device and informative photographs.