Athens – Airport Museum

This museum within Athens airport was a useful distraction whilst trying to kill time and it’s open for nearly all of the day, is unstaffed and is free of charge to enter.

It’s a well-laid out museum and it contains items found when the airport was being constructed. There’s also some background provided about the local area and how it has developed over the centuries.

A bread stamp, used to imprint designs into bread, from the mid-Byzantine period.

A sphinx from Spata.

Dating from the early Byzantine period, this is part of a beehive. However, it was later repurposed to be used as a cover for a child’s grave.

This marble decorative piece would have been used at a grave and it dates from around the end of the fifth century BC.

A small marble gravestone marker, dating to the Roman period.

Intriguing, this is a landmark from a mortgaged field which gives the name of its owner and also its value. It dates to the fourth century BC.

I know that a few airports in the United States have small museums such as this, and a few others around the world, but it’s a shame that more don’t have something similar. British Airways have a wonderful museum at Waterside, which is only semi-open to the general public, but I’m not sure that there’s anything at nearby Heathrow Airport.