Museum of Ancient Greek Technology

At the entrance to Katakolo, the small port town on the western coast of the Peloponnese best known as the gateway to ancient Olympia, stands one of three museums founded by the Greek engineer and collector Kostas Kotsanas. The Katakolo branch of the Museum of Ancient Greek Technology sits beside the town's train station, a walk of a few hundred metres from the marina, and is the original and smallest of the three locations — the other two are in Ancient Olympia and Athens.

Inside, the one-room museum displays working reconstructions of Greek inventions and mechanical devices dating from roughly 2000 BC to 100 AD, built from ancient written descriptions and archaeological evidence rather than surviving originals. Labels are provided in Greek and English, and staff regularly demonstrate how the machines operate.

The best-known exhibit is a working reconstruction of the Antikythera mechanism, the bronze geared device recovered from a shipwreck near the island of Antikythera and generally dated to around the 2nd century BC. Widely regarded as the oldest known analogue computer, the original device tracked astronomical cycles and could predict eclipses years in advance — a level of mechanical sophistication not matched again in Europe until the medieval period. Alongside it are reconstructions of Heron of Alexandria's automated theatre, early hydraulic clocks, and other devices, including one popularly nicknamed "Plato's alarm clock."

Combining a stop at Olympia with a look at this quirky museum in Katakolo is a favourite detour for travellers on a gulet cruise along the Greece coast.