Altes Museum

Altes Museum (in German, Old Museum) is a classicism building designed by the German architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel. It was completed in 1828. It is located in the "Museumsinsel" (Museum Island) in the city of Berlin and houses the collection of antiquities of the state museums of the city. From 2005 until the completion of the Neues Museum (New Museum) in 2009 the exhibition of the "Ägyptisches Museum" (Egyptian Museum in Berlin).

The building is considered one of the most important examples of Neoclassicism. It was designed between 1822 and 1823, but construction did not start until 1825 and finished in 1828, and it was opened as a museum in 1830. Together with the Dulwich Picture Gallery, it is one of the first museums in the world designed for this purpose. The building is 87 m long and 57 m wide. Its shape is parallelepiped, with two interior patios and a flat roof. The exhibition rooms are grouped around these patios. The central area of the building has two floors (23 m) and has a central rotunda, with overhead light, forming a gallery supported by twenty Ionic order columns.

Nearby are the Neues Museum (New Museum) and the "Pergamonmuseum" (Museum of Pergamum).