Private Walking Tour: Benaki Museum

Athens, Greece

Visit Greece's finest private museum on this 3-hour private walking tour from Athens. The museum contains the vast collection of Antonis Benakis, accumulated during 35 years of avid collecting in Europe and Asia.

Syntagma Metro station, where your tour begins contains many archaeological exhibits including ancient grave stones, an aqueduct from the 5th century BC, pottery, a 2,000-year old beehive and a mosaic from the 5th century AD.

The collection housed in one of the best-preserved neoclassical buildings of Athens spans three floors and includes Bronze Age finds from Mycenae and Thessaly; two early works by El Greco; ecclesiastical furniture brought from Asia Minor; pottery, copper, silver and woodwork from Egypt, Asia Minor and Mesopotamia; and a stunning collection of Greek regional costumes.

After your tour through the Museum, head down Herodes Atticus Road where you will see the Presidential Residence, the Maximos Mansion, and on to the Panathenaic Stadium home of the first Olympic Games in 1896.

Visit the Temple of Zeus, the largest temple in Greece. The temple is impressive for the sheer size of its 104 Corinthian columns of which 15 remain. Your tour will end at Hadrian's Arch, erected by Hadrian in AD 132.

Review by:   Bernadette d,    December 2014
It was great, different from other tours we did while we were in Greece. The visit to the Benaki Museum was like no other!

Review by:   Olivia D Z,    December 2013
Tour guide was excellent.