I’ve been undertaking an unofficial tour of the treasures hidden in the Australian National University (ANU) over the last few weeks.

After leading me to the ANU Drill Hall Gallery, my tour has now shown me another gem that I was unaware of previously. Nestled in the ground floor corridors of the A.D. Hope Building, amidst lecture theatres and professors’ offices is the fascinating ANU Classics Museum.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary last year, the Classics Museum houses a collection of antiques from Ancient Rome and Greece that gives a good overview of those ancient civilizations. Having literally stumbled upon this great collection, it struck me as quite magical to see a scale model of 2nd century A.D. Rome, along with marble heads, mosaics, Greek vases, ancient coins and beautiful fragments of wall paintings. An additional surprise amongst the Roman and Greek artefacts was to see a massive replica of an Aztec calendar stone. The sheer height of the stone took me by surprise, at near 7 feet tall and equally wide it dominates the room and I approached it in awe, appreciating that it symbolizes Aztec ideas of the nature of the universe.

Wandering around these ancient pieces, I was transported back to a simple museum located in a house I visited while backpacking in Greece eight years ago. Just like this one at the ANU, the exhibits displayed fit in and around fixtures of the building. The university’s blue carpeted halls, lecture room signs and the professors’ name plates are visible through the display cases and much like in that Greek house, I felt like I’d found a secret treasure trove.

Further down the hallways I found cabinets displaying more treasures from around the world. Moving from cabinet to cabinet, I felt quite sneaky walking past professors typing away in their offices as I gazed at objects from Borneo, the Solomon Islands, Central India and the Central Desert area of Australia. At the other end of the floor, as far from the Classics Museum as you can go is another surprise, an impressive display illustrating the evolution of humans through the use of skulls and ape skeletons.

Originally established as a study resource for students, the collection is now also open to the public. Opening hours are 9:00am to 6:00pm weekdays (except public holidays) and tours are offered on the second Monday of every month between 12:30pm and 1:30pm.

Bookings are essential so contact Susan Chessell (susan.chessell@gmail.com) or Jill Greenwell (jgreenwell@ozemail.com) for a place on one (or just to ask if it’s true that such a place exists!)