The Aegean Maritime Museum is housed in a traditional Mykonian building of the 19th century, located at the center of the town of Mykonos, in the area known as "Tria Pigadia". The building was the home of the legendary Master of the merchant ship "Enosis", Nicolaos Sourmelis, who assisted the Cretans during their war of independence from the Ottoman Empire.

The museum's collections let the visitor travel through time in Greek maritime history, on the seaways of the Aegean from the ancient times to our days. Its exhibits include models of ships from the pre-minoan period down to the beginning of the 20th century, historical shipping documents, rare engravings and maps, ancient artifacts, navigational instruments, equipment and tools, as well as a collection of rare coins with nautical subjects from the 5th century B.C. to the 5th century A.D. 

The museum's library consists of more than 5,000 volumes of rare books and more recent editions and archives of manuscripts and photographs and is constantly updated to include additional archival material and new scholarship in relevant subjects. 

In the museum's garden lie reproductions of ancient marble gravestones from the islands of Mykonos and Delos, dealing with shipwrecks and sailors who were lost at sea. 

The Aegean Maritime Museum prides itself, perhaps not unjustly, for its 3 "living" historical exhibits : The "Armenistis" lighthouse, the "perama" type sailing ship "Evangelistria" and the cable-laying ship "Thalis o Milissios". The museum has rescued and restored these exhibits to operate as they were originally designed and built