The Acropolis Museum and the Marble That Came Home

The Acropolis Museum and the Marble That Came Home

The Acropolis Museum opened in 2009 to house the Parthenon sculptures -- and to argue they belong in Athens, not the British Museum. The top-floor Parthenon Gallery aligns with the temple visible through the glass walls, and the frieze fragments Athens possesses are displayed in their original sequence with conspicuous gaps where the Elgin Marbles would go.

The lower floors hold archaic sculptures, the Caryatids from the Erechtheion, and painted pottery in galleries lit through glass floors revealing the excavation beneath the building.

What visitors miss: The glass floor in the entrance hall, through which excavated ancient Athenian streets and houses are visible below your feet.