A strikingly modern building with glass galore is home to some of Greece’s historic treasures. The $175 million Acropolis Museum was opened to the public in June 2009 and is now one of Athens’ most popular attractions.

The Acropolis Museum sits on an archaeological site only about a quarter mile from the Acropolis. Glass floors in the entryway and the museum let you see the excavations below. A wall of windows inside the museum offers spectacular views of the Acropolis.

The top floor of the Acropolis Museum spotlights the Parthenon, along with its missing marble pieces. Called the Elgin Marbles, the famous Parthenon treasures were removed by British Ambassador Lord Elgin in the early 19^th century and sold to the British Museum.

Carted out by boatloads, the ancient sculptures include about half of the sculpted frieze that once ran around all of the Parthenon building, plus 17 life-sized marble figures from the gable ends and 15 of the sculpted panels originally displayed above the building’s columns.

Two differing tales surround the missing marbles. The Greeks say the artifacts were looted. The British Museum maintains the pieces were moved there for safekeeping. Even before the priceless artifacts went on display in London, their removal from Greece was controversial. The British poet Lord Byron criticized Elgin in “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” about how the Greek antiquities had been “defac’d by British hands.”

In fact, the Acropolis Museum notes that more than half of the Parthenon sculptures are in the British Museum in London. “Their return to Athens, for their display in the Acropolis Museum together with other originals, is a cultural issue awaiting to be settled,” the museum notes.

Maybe someday the missing sculptures will be there in the Acropolis Museum, along with other treasures as yet undiscovered.

“An ancient city lies beneath the modern city of Athens. We have cities built upon cities and excavations are going on all around Athens,” tour guide Katia said.  “We believe there are many other treasures buried beneath the modern city.”

Story and photo by Jackie Sheckler Finch