Myth-inspired museum garden opens to visitors

Some 6,000 native shrubs and trees, including a 1,300-year-old olive tree, adorn the new garden at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, which opened to visitors on Saturday. The garden contains plants found in Greek mythology and is divided into three sections: Botanical walks, the "Arcadian landscape" and a small artificial hill in the center for the old olive tree. "Our reasoning was for the museum garden to be linked to the museum itself and its collections. We have selected plants that point to to the Homeric epics and signs will be placed in each flowerbed with their names, while informative material will be distributed to the visitors," botanist Dr Antonis Skordilis, who is founder and CEO of Ecoscapes, the company who created the garden, told Kathimerini. [Nikos Kokkalias]