Founded in 1903, it has been rearranged several times and houses the discoveries made at the Panhellenic sanctuary of Delphi, which date from the Late Helladic (Mycenean) period to the early Byzantine era.

Organised in fourteen rooms on two levels, the museum mainly displays statues, including the famous Charioteer of Delphi, architectural elements, like the frieze of the Siphnian Treasury and ex votos dedicated to the sanctuary of Pythian Apollo, like the Sphinx of Naxos.

[2] A first, rather small museum was inaugurated on 2 May 1903 to celebrate the end of the first great archaeological campaign of French excavations and to exhibit the findings.

The building was designed by the French architect Albert Tournaire, financed by a trust established by the Greek banker and philanthropist Andreas Syngros.

The arrangement of the collection, designed by the director of the archaeological expedition, Théophile Homolle, was inspired by the view that the architectural parts and sculptures should be put "in context".

Despite the admiration it inspired to the Greek and international community, already in the 1930s the museum was becoming too small to accommodate new findings or the increasing number of tourists.

The new museum was representative of the architectural trends of the Interwar period and was accomplished in 1939, including a new arrangement of the objects by the Professor of Archaeology at Thessaloniki, Constantinos Romaios.

The reorganisation of the Archaic collections was entrusted to the French archaeologist Pierre de La Coste-Messelière, who discarded the plaster restorations of significant artefacts, including that of the Siphnian Treasury, which had become one of the principal attractions.

The arrangement of the collection remained chronological, but a greater focus was placed on the sculpture, with statues increasingly separated from their architectural contexts.

[2] The collection was rearranged in order to reconcile the need to display the main attractions of the museum effectively and the wish to present the latest theories and discoveries of archaeological and historical scholarships.

The exhibition starts with Mycenaean finds, particularly clay figurines, among which a significant female figure seated on a three-legged chair, which has been viewed as a precursor of the later tripods.

Room 3 is dominated by the Kouroi of Delphi, archaic male statues known also as Cleobis and Biton, which were produced at Argos between 610 and 580 BCE.

On one of the cases fastened against the wall is displayed a bronze tile depicting a scene from the Odyssey: A man, probably Odysseus, tied under the belly of a ram is possibly escaping from the cave of Polyphemus; another tile depicts Heracles carrying the Erymanthian boar to king Eurystheus, who hides in a jar, terrified.

Finally, simae from two archaic treasuries are also displayed; they are made of terracotta and are decorated with rosettes and spiral motifs.

[4](pp 415-416) The archaic sculptures, made of Parian marble, include a carriage with four horses, carrying Apollo.

On the north side are depicted nine heroic deeds of Heracles, such as the fight against Geryones, in four consequent metopes, in an unusual "narrative" style.

Architectural members on the north wall of the room such as simae, gutters in the form of lion-head and acroteria in the form of anthemia, as well as parts of Nike acroteria belong also to various buildings of the sanctuary, date to the late archaic and classical periods and preserve traces of their initial colours.

In the middle of the room there are free-standing cases, in which are displayed three bronze figurines, namely a Corinthian figurine of a man playing the double flute (460–450 BCE), two naked athletes dated to the same period and coming from an Attic workshop, and a magnificent bronze incense-burner in the form of a "peplophoros", a female figure holding above her head a cauldron for burning the incense.

Room 10, on the other hand, contains parts of the Tholos of Delphi, the round building standing out in the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia, dated to the first quarter of the 4th century BCE.

The ex voto consisted of a rectangular base 11 meters long which bore openings for supporting nine statues, discovered around it.

The column ended in a composition consisting of acanthus leaves out of which sprang three female figures with their hands lifted, as if dancing.

Close to Antinous stands a head of a man probably depicting Titus Quinctius Flamininus, the Roman general who conquered Delphi in 198 BCE.

In the middle of the room stands a round altar made of Pentelic marble and coming from the Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia.

They consist of depictions of scenes from the life and deeds of Heracles, such as the garden of the Hesperides, Cerberus, the lion of Nemea, a centaur, Antaeus, the belt of Hippolyte, the horses of Diomedes, etc.

A hermaic stele nearby bears an dedicatory inscription to Plutarch and it probably held a head statue of the ancient author, but the latter has not been preserved.

Hand-made and wheel-made pottery (11th–9th century BCE) are also extant, coming from a chamber tomb discovered at the site of the museum.

In a free standing case in the middle of the room is displayed a bronze hydria with depiction in relief, a rather rare vessel of a workshop located in the north Peloponnese.

Two attic lekythoi with depictions in relief, clay figurines of Aphrodite, a dancer, Cassandra, a comic actor as well as a doll with movable hands and legs count among the most important exhibits.

The long case along the narrow wall contains finds from the Corycian cave, such as two vessels of the late Neolithic period, some human clay figurines, obsidian blades, and some of the knucklebones discovered there.