Acropolis Museum from the cruise port

Opened in 2009 at the southern foot of the Acropolis, the Acropolis Museum was designed by Bernard Tschumi specifically to display the sculptures of the sacred rock. Glass floors reveal the excavated ancient neighbourhood beneath your feet, and the whole building is oriented towards the Parthenon on the hill above. It is regularly rated among the finest museums in the world.

• The top-floor Parthenon Gallery, where the frieze and metopes are mounted at their original height and orientation, with the temple itself visible through floor-to-ceiling glass
• The original Caryatids from the Erechtheion (replicas stand on the rock)
• Archaic korai and kouroi statues, and the Kritios Boy
• Glass floors over the live archaeological excavation below

The museum entrance is beside Acropoli metro station, reachable from Piraeus in around 40–55 minutes by metro or 30–45 minutes by taxi. If you are also visiting the Acropolis, do the open-air site first thing while it is cool, then descend to the air-conditioned museum afterwards — a five-minute walk downhill.

Standing on the Acropolis, you see the architecture; in the museum, you meet the art that filled it. Seeing the frieze at eye level, aligned with the Parthenon through the glass, transforms your understanding of what you walked around above. For cruise passengers short on time, the combined Acropolis and Museum excursion is the most efficient way to experience both.