Aegean Airlines is allowing has made an offer to 208 schools located on Greece’s islands to transport their pupils to Athens to see the New Acropolis Museum for free – making Greece’s culture far more accessible to a wider range of the country’s citizens than just those based near to Athens.

From:
Crete Gazette

Greek Pupils Travel Free with Aegean Airlines to the New Acropolis Museum
1st October 2009

Thousands of Greek pupils of the 9th grade will have the chance to travel for free to Athens from their area of residence to enjoy the unique experience of visiting the new Acropolis Museum and get to know the rich cultural heritage. This chance is given to them by Aegean Airlines, offering free transportation to pupils from the Greek Islands.

The project Aegean – Close to the Youth aims at offering to pupils from 208 different schools in the Greek Islands, the chance to visit the New Museum of the Acropolis. The project, once approved by the pertinent ministry and officials will start in October and will be involve all the pupils of ninth grade for the school year 2009-2010.

The islands, whose schools will participate in the project are Crete, Corfu, Kefallonia, Kos, Lesbos, Lemnos, Mykonos, Rhodes, Samos, Santorini and Chios and any island of the arid lines will be included to the flying destinations of Aegean Airlines from October 1st.

The director of Aegean Airlines Theodoros Vasilakis denoted that Aegean stands by the young generations, offering them the chance to get to know the impressive treasures of the New Acropolis Museum. The visit to the museum is, according to Mr Vasilakis, an excellent chance to enhance the in school instructional system and a chance for the pupils to feel proud for the history and the present times of Greece.

The New Acropolis Museum

Situated at the southeastern slope of the Acropolis hill, facing directly the Parthenon and the Holy Rock, the New Acropolis Museum is an impressive modern museum hosting 4,000 artefacts of the Acropolis and the temples on the rock and the ancient agora. The impressive element of the new Museum is not only the modern and contemporizing building and facilities, but mostly the contact with the Acropolis, which gives the visitors the impression of a continuation in history.

The new Acropolis museum was designed bearing two main objectives in mind; to offer great conditions for the exhibits, and be a friendly and hospitable museum. It has achieved both. A walk throughout its galleries and exhibitions, from the findings of the excavations around the Acropolis to the marbles of the Parthenon gives the visitor the chance to envision how the ancient neighborhoods of Athens really were.

The new museum of the Acropolis opened its gates on June 22nd 2009 and since then has received more than 700,000 visitors.