In the afternoon the museum can become crowded with large tour groups on day trips from Athens – try to visit in the morning if you can.
As one of the most important sites in the ancient world, Delphi has yielded a wealth of exquisite archaeological findings, and many of them are housed adjacent to it in the Delphi Museum. The various exhibitions span over a thousand years of history, from the Mycenaean Era to Roman Greece, which are laid out in a series of 14 rooms.
Making Your Way Through History
The oldest artefacts are displayed in the first two rooms. Here you can find several intriguing Mycenaean clay figurines, as well as a number of bronze items, some of which are intricately decorated with griffins and other mythical creatures. Room four houses some of the most valuable items in the museum’s collection – gold, silver and precious stone-encrusted representations of Apollo, Artemis and Leto. These were found in a pit on the Sacred Way near the temple of Apollo.
Lost Marbles
In room five you will see the famous Sphinx of Nassos, a large sculpture depicting a mythical creature with the head of a woman, the body of a lion and the spectacular plumage of a bird of prey. Originally this topped an Ionic column some 12m tall, and was an offering to Apollo from a rich man called Nassos. Continuing through the museum you will encounter an increasing number of impressive marble statues of various gods and dignitaries. Particularly impressive is the Acanthus Column in room eleven, a beautiful sculpture of three female figures atop a column that was the inspiration for the first of Claude Debussy’s Preludes.
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