An Unforgettable day at the Museum, with Three Unique Entertaining Workshops for Youngsters, Grown-Ups and Families

Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology offers a unique entertaining and educational experience different to anything you have met until today.

Three entertainment workshops, specifically designed for all ages, offer fun and knowledge, sharpen mental and spiritual abilities and reveal to us the secrets of the Ancient Greeks. The participants, under the guidance of the Museum’s expert’s staff, solve the “mystery” of telecommunications in Ancient Greece, discover and operate the worldwide recognized Antikythera Mechanism and have fun by playing with the Ancient Greek strategy games.

The workshops are for all ages: children, adults and families.

Α. Telecommunication and Cryptography: How did ancient Greeks communicate and send encoded messages?

Sundays 10.00 a. m

On a unique interactive map, correctly place the fires of Agamemnon and announce the fall of Troy! Learn and operate the “beacons”, the first optical telegraph in history. Receive and send encoded messages with your friends and…save the city, or.. play the broken telephone! Find out how to use the hydraulic telegraph of Aeneas, the first telecommunication device in the world and become the fastest messenger in history! Build the “notebooks” and “pencils” of the Ancient Greeks, and write, send and read cryptographic messages based on the Polivios code. Construct the «secret baton», send useful messages to your friends that are incomprehensible to your enemies.

As a gift you will receive a functional cardboard cryptographic disk of Aeneas.

Β. Ancient Greek Strategy Games: from the zatrikion to the puzzle, the tangram, chess, backgammon and tic tack toe.

Sundays 11.00 a. m

Discover the most important intelligence strategy games from the Minoan to the Late Hellenistic period. Learn how to play “pawns” and “dice”. Compete in the “trias” and “enneas”. Discover the rules of playing “tilia” and “polis”. Practice playing the “ostomachion” of Archimedes that consists of 14 pieces. Try to make a tangram from one of the 8 predefined (or some of your own) figures, or solve the puzzle by making a square, using one of the 536 different combinations and win a special gift from the Museum’s shop.

Before you leave, take with you a wooden “ostomachion” and a unique leaflet of all the different combinations, as researched by Arcimedes, and have been recently verified by the use of powerful computing programs.

C. Calculating mechanisms in Antiquity. From the “calculator” of Salamina, to the “computer of Antikythera”.

Sundays 16.00 p. m

Discover the Greek (acrophonic) abacus, a special sign that allows the user to quickly place numbers, of any size, using the Herodian numbering system, and to add, subtract, multiply and divide between these numbers. Practice, compete and win a special gift from the Museum’s shop. Turn the lever, of a large-scale Antikythera Mechanism, and unlock its “secrets”. Transfer to the past or future and find the position of the sun in the zodiac cycle, the phase and position of the moon, the month in the lunar calendar, the date and hour of the eclipse of the sun and moon, the dates of the most important games of antiquity, etc.

Build your own functional part of the Antikythera Mechanism from metal and plexi glass, and use it as a decoration for your favorite place!

As a gift you will receive a functional cardboard Greek (acrophonic) abacus!

Museum of Ancient Greek Technology, Kostas Kotsanas, Pindarou 6 and Akademias, Kolonaki, 10671, Athens

When: Every Sunday (From 18th October & Uppon Request)

Contact: 211 4110044, 6907 292002

Working Hours:

• Winter Season: Monday – Sunday 09.00 a.m – 17.00 p.m
• Summer Season: Monday – Sunday 10.00 a.m – 18.00 a.m