Museum for Alexander the Great

[Ellinas]

Greece will dedicate a museum to Alexander the Great in the northern town of Pella, his birthplace and the seat of the Macedonian kingdom that ruled an empire from Europe to India, an official said yesterday.

Expected to be ready by late 2008, the new museum will house mosaics, weapons, jewelry and other finds from a 20-year excavation of the Pella archaeological site, an official at the Culture Ministry’s museums department told AFP.

“The finds, mainly from temples, show how these people lived... we even found a curse which shows that the Macedonians spoke Doric, an ancient Greek dialect, from the 5th century BC,” the official said. “This is very important, also in political terms,” she added.

In recent years, Greece has faced a challenge from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) over the “intellectual rights” to Alexander’s heritage. Τhe tiny Balkan nation, which became independent after the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, has staked a claim as it lies in what was once part of ancient Macedonia.

Athens has threatened to block Skopje’s bid to join the European Union and NATO unless it changes its name, and efforts by the UN to resolve the 15-year dispute have so far proved fruitless.

Skopje last year infuriated Athens by officially renaming its capital’s main airport after Alexander the Great.

Born in Pella in 356 BC, Alexander conquered the Persian Empire and much of the world known before dying in Babylon in 323 BC. (AFP)

Η ΚΑΘΗΜΕΡΙΝΗ

[Prokomenos]

Definately make that a spot visit....

[really]

Is there presently a museum in Greece where the materials related to Alexander The Great are showcased? Would that be in the big Archeological Museum in Athens? I don't remember seeing them when I visited the Museum.

[Ellinas]

Originally Posted by really
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Is there presently a museum in Greece where the materials related to Alexander The Great are showcased? Would that be in the big Archeological Museum in Athens? I don't remember seeing them when I visited the Museum.

First of all, welcome back :).

This is the first time a Museum will be dedicated exclusively to Alexander the Great. I haven't been in Pella and Vergina, but I know that most of the artifacts related to Alexander are in the museums of the two towns and the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.

The National Archaeological Museum of Athens has a lot of artifacts but the majority of them were found in Attica and parts of South Greece. The artifacts found in Macedonia are gathered in the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki and other local museums.

[really]

Thanks for the welcome, Ellinas. :)

It would be nice to be able to visit the new Museum once it is finished. What a nice idea to have one dedicated to Alexander.

They mention the finds of the 20-year excavation in Pella, so it seems only those will be in the new Museum. Maybe the rest will still be left in Vergina and Thessaloniki.

I can't believe that most of the artifacts in the National Archeological Museum in Athens came only from Attica and Southern Greece. There is an incredible number of them. I actually did not even have enough time to visit the whole museum.

[Ellinas]

Originally Posted by really
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Thanks for the welcome, Ellinas. :)

It would be nice to be able to visit the new Museum once it is finished. What a nice idea to have one dedicated to Alexander.

They mention the finds of the 20-year excavation in Pella, so it seems only those will be in the new Museum. Maybe the rest will still be left in Vergina and Thessaloniki.

I can't believe that most of the artifacts in the National Archeological Museum in Athens came only from Attica and Southern Greece. There is an incredible number of them. I actually did not even have enough time to visit the whole museum.

Besides the exhibitions which are near the archaeological sites, they are a lot of archaeological museums in Southern Greece. They are towns with only 2,000 or 3,000 inhabitants who have their own archaeological museum with artifacts found in the areas around. I mean that the National Archaeological Museum of Athens holds only a part of the exhibited artifacts. However regarding the museums singly, the one of Athens can't be compared with any other regarding the number of artifacts.

Did you also go to the Acropolis Museum?

[really]

It is just amazing what you said! I know there are many many museums but not that many. I mean, every rock in Greece is an artifact by itself.

Yes, I went to the Acropolis Museum and the Olympia Museum. They are also very nice. The statue of Hermes is perfection itself. My heart stopped when I first saw it.
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Some of the stones in Olympia have shells in them, did you notice that?

I actually like a lot to visit archeological sites and museums, and Greece is heaven for those. The great thing about Greek museums is that you only find Greek artifacts in them.

(Well, I went in Greece a few times and did not even know that Parios exists, just to say to you where I spent part of my time. Aaaaaahhh!)