The museum is sited over an archeological excavation of an early Greek settlement. Glass walkways over the site provide light, cover, and a view for visitors of the excavation. It's really quite extraordinary.
The entrance to the museum.
Inside the museum, visitors start by walking up a ramp, with antiquities in glass cases on each side. This represents the path from Athens up to the Acropolis which the citizens of Athens would have ascended every four years at the culmination of a city-wide celebration. The parade — called the Panathenian Procession — included virtually all the people of Athens, bulls for sacrifice, and — at the front — a young girl carrying a specially made cloth which would be draped over the ivory and gold statue(which is long gone) of Athena contained within the Parthenon (the ruins of which are visible from the museum).
Around the top of the Parthenon is the frieze — a series of panels of carved stone telling the story of the Panathenian procession with great attention to the real life details: the struggle of young men to control bulls bring brought up for sacrifice, casual conversations between men, the intimacy young women share when they are together, the air of supremacy that gods exude as they lounge at the top, waiting for the mortals of Athens to arrive to worship them. This is Ria, spinning in the empty exhibit after dinner.
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