It is one of the oldest and most important museums in Greece - among the most famous in Europe - which was built between 1935 and 1958 in Crete. It houses representative artifacts from all periods of Cretan prehistory, covering a time period of more than 5,500 years from the Neolithic period to the Roman period. The museum is proud of its unique Minoan collection, which includes masterpieces of Minoan art; The museum is rightly considered the Museum of Minoan culture par excellence. It also has spacious exhibition rooms, an audio-visual media room, laboratories, a gift shop and a cafeteria in the garden. The museum organizes temporary exhibitions in Greece and abroad, creates and implements educational programmes, cooperates with scientific institutions and houses a variety of cultural events.