The National Archaeological Museum is the largest museum in Greece and one of the world's great museums. Although its original purpose was to secure all the finds from the 19th century excavations in and around Athens, it gradually became the central National Archaeological Museum and was enriched with finds from all over Greece. Its abundant collection, with more than 11,000 exhibits, provides a panorama of Greek civilization from the beginnings of prehistory to late antiquity. The museum is housed in an imposing neoclassical building from the end of the 19th century, which was designed by L. Lange and remodeled by Ernst Ziller. The vast exhibition space, numerous galleries on each floor accounting for a total of 8,000 square meters, houses five large permanent collections. For example, the Collection of Prehistoric Antiquities, which includes works of the great civilizations that developed in the Aegean from the 6th millennium B.C. to 1050 B.C. (Neolithic, Cycladic and Mycenaean) and finds from the prehistoric settlement at Thera. The Sculptures Collection shows the development of ancient Greek sculpture from the 7th to the 5th centuries B.C. with unique masterpieces. The Vase and Minor Objects Collection, which contains representative works of ancient Greek pottery from the 11th century B.C. to the Roman period, also includes the Stathatos Collection, a corpus of minor objects from all periods. In the Bronze Collection, you'll find many fundamental statues, figurines and minor objects. And finally, you'll see the only Egyptian and Near Eastern Antiquities Collection in Greece, with works dating from the pre-dynastic period (5000 B.C.) to the Roman conquest.