This fascinating little gem of a museum is tucked into the Kolonaki neighborhood, in a lovely old Art Nouveau mansion that once belonged to the Greek royal family. You can buzz through it in 90 minutes. Of course, you can and should try to spend longer than that, but it is a very small place and you can visit it without feeling like you're killing half the day, should you have limited time. 

It is packed with reproductions of ancient technology, inventions and devices, many of which you can try out, like the charming door alarm and the tripod crane, which lets you lift a heavy stone with a single finger. There are even ancient toys and puzzles and a small area specifically for children. 

And with this museum, you get a kind of two-fer - the same building houses the Museum of Ancient Greek Musical Instruments, which shows beautiful reproductions of ancient instruments like the lyre, the Pan flute and more. 

The more than 150 exhibits have detailed information in both Greek and English, allowing visitors to really understand the frequently complex concepts and inventions. There are diagrams and photos, and as mentioned, meticulous and functioning reproductions of all the astonishing technological marvels. 

The exhibits are broken up into various categories: ancient clocks, the automatics of Heron of Alexandria (My favorite - holy cow, was this guy way before his time!), automatic theaters, the inventions of Archimedes, elevating mechanisms, the technology of the ancient Greek theater (including what a deus ex machina actually was!), hydraulics, astronomical instruments, measuring instruments, and a wide array of medical, agricultural, nautical and sport technologies. And much more!

One of my favorites is this delightful little hydraulic automaton of chirping birds and an owl, invented by the prolific engineer and physicist Philo of Byzantium (you can see it at work in the video above), who also invented our wine-pouring robot and numerous other marvels.