Museum – Hellenic Republic

What do you know about the high-tech inventions of the Ancient Greeks?

The Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology is home to a wide variety of exhibits-copies of ancient Greek devices and inventions. Visitors are invited to discover:

• A “cinema” that automatically presents the story of a myth with moving pictures and sound
• Alarm clocks that operate without human intervention
• A steam engine that is the first of its kind
• Lifting mechanisms that can construct extremely tall structures with minimal manpower
• Measuring instruments, such as an analogue computer, a GPS and a theodolite, which can calculate astronomical and geodetic data with precision
• Ingenious vending machines,
• Automotive vehicles (automobiles) with auto drive, a gearbox, programmable hydraulic valves and other complex components (for entertainment purposes only)

And much more!

All the exhibits have been crafted by the museum's founder, Kostas Kotsanas, through many years of extensive research and study.

The Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology aims to highlight the relatively unknown technological aspect of ancient Greek civilisation, outlining that the technology in Ancient Greece, just before the end of the ancient Greek world, was shockingly similar to the beginning of modern technology.

The exhibits are accompanied by audio-visual material in Greek and English. Many of the displays are interactive and all of the items on show are operational. Several of the museum's temporary exhibitions have been held in Greece and abroad, from Cyprus to Australia.

Bonus Trivia!

In 2019, the Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology was nominated for the European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA) by the European Museum Forum (EMF).

Sources: https://kotsanas.com/en/home-en/

Photographs taken from: https://kotsanasmuseum.com/exhibits/?lang=en

Photograph No 1: The automatic servant of Philon (3rd century BC). The first operating robot in human history. Source: Philon of Byzantium, Pneumatics

Photograph No 2: The automatic holy water server with coin-collector (1st century AD). The first vending machine in human history. Source: Heron of Alexandria, Pneumatics.

Photograph No 3: The static automatic theatre of Philon (3rd century BC). The cinema of the ancient Greeks. Source: Heron of Alexandria, Automatopoetike

Photograph No 4: The mobile automaton of Heron of Alexandria (1st century AD). The self-navigating car-puppet theatre of the ancient Greeks. Source: Heron of Alexandria, Automatopoetike

Photograph No 5: The sound alarm. It was a sound device that was activated by the opening of the door it protected, constituting the first sound alarm worldwide. Source: Heron of Alexandria, Pneumatica, 17

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