It is built in a niche at the eastern edge of the rock and most of it lies beneath the level of the hilltop, making it largely invisible.

Due to its limited size, the Greek government decided in the late 1980s to build a new museum.

[1] The museum was home to many of the Greek world's ancient relics found in and around the Acropolis of Athens since excavations started.

It was expanded in the 1950s to a modern design executed by Patroklos Karantinos, a Greek modernist architect.

Initial plans were made under Melina Mercouri and the ground of the Makrygianni former military hospital and Gendarmerie barracks was chosen.