A remarkable “museum” in which a train passes through……

Imagine hopping on the train to go to work and suddenly realizing that you’ve stopped at a museum! That’s the feel Athenian commuters get every morning when they board the Athens Metro.

Ranked by Frommer’s as one of the top 10 subways in the world because of the archaeological exhibitions and contemporary art installations at many of the stations.

History

When constructions began on the new Athens Metro in the early 90’s, so many archeological artifacts were unearthed it was decided to exhibit many of them closest to where they were found.

Currently, most stations display these archaeological objects and many more host artwork by famous contemporary Greek artists as well.

Over 30,000 artefacts from the classical Greek, Roman, and Byzantine periods were excavated, including ancient city walls, cisterns, urns, sarcophagi and even parts of an aqueduct. Many of these discoveries were moved to the Cycladic Art Museum. Others have been preserved in their original locations.

The actual process of tunneling beneath this 30,000 year old city was one of the largest archaeological excavations in Athens history. It covered an area of 79 sq. kilometers. Below you can see the construction of the Central Syntagma station.

A team of over 50 archaeologists were onsite during construction of every tunnel shaft and station. When they discovered artifacts, work stopped until the finds could be safely retrieved. This process may have taken months before construction could resume.

What you can admire at some stations:

Syntagma station – Roman baths, a section of the Peisistratian aqueduct, the bed of the Iridanos River and the ancient road which led to the municipalities of Messogia were all unearthed. In the photo below you can see a cross section of the actual “layers of civilization” including:

• Cistern from the Ottoman Period
• Early Christian Grave
• Road foundations to Mesogaia
• Pit of the “Peisistratid” Aqueduct
• Grave from the 4th Century BC
• Eridanos River Bed

Keramikos station – Two mass graves which date back to the beginning of the Peloponnesian War were discovered not far from the station.

Monastiraki station – Remains of settlements dating from between the 8th century BC (Geometric Period) and the 19th century AD. The embedded Iridanos river bed, which has been made accessible to passengers, was also unearthed at this spot.

Acropolis station- Graves from the Mid- and Post-Helladic periods, as well as dwellings, workshops, roads and baths.

Artistic works of the most famous Greek artists have also been put on display.

Metaxourgio station – Two works of art created by Alekos Fasianos which is located in the neighborhood where he grew up.

Fix station – An illuminated statue of Taki.

Omonia Station – A work of art created by Nikos Kessanlis

Ethniki Amyna station – A structure with trees created by Kostas Tsoklis

As Leonides Kikiras, chairman of Attiko Metro said …”Engineers count in days, while archaeologists count in centuries”

If you are interested how the tunnel boring process works, please see this interesting video below.