The Archaeological Museum of Archanes opened in 1993. It occupies an area of 570 square meters and it is located at the Tzami quarter in the center of the settlement. There, for the first time in Crete, the archaeological finds from a single site are exhibited. While the exterior spaces of the building were adapted to a tasteful ensemble, in resemblance with the impressive modesty of the environment and the traditional ochre and rosy colour tonations of Archanes, the interior was thus arranged as to accomodate the most modern mode of exhibition, especially attractive for the visitor. Although the most important finds from the Archanes excavation are kept in the Herakleion Archaeological Museum for safety reasons, the new Archanes Museum is much more than a local, provincial museum. It supplies information on the Minoan civilization and art probably better than the Herakleion Museum, since here the usual monotony of an archaeological exhibition has been broken. The reason maybe that the main characteristic of the Archanes Museum is its in small scale completeness, like Archanes, the important, small town of northern Crete, where the cycle of life and death can be observed throughout Antiquity, even in the years beyond the Minoan period.