British Museum - London - TravBuddy

My hotel was located nearby the British Musuem and I was unable to check into the hotel until after 2 PM so I headed over to the museum to check it out. It was on my priority list for London was I was glad it was so close to where I'd be staying.

I waded past the photographers outside angling their cameras to catch the museum's Roman facade and made my way inside. As soon as you enter the building you are in a glass domed circular room known as the "Great Court" which was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth II and completed in 2000. Like all great leaders in history she had her name engraved in the stone so that she would forever be tied to the museum.

I had read that the museum has been dubbed as one of the world’s greatest museums dedicated to human history and culture. I would soon see why it received such an honorable title. In the Great Court there is a circular information desk that is loaded with pamphlets and maps of the museum. I grabbed some pamphlets and veered to the left where I found the Rosetta Stone directly in front of me. Protective glass and tourists sounded it. I was able to weasel my way in and get two snap shots and a good look before I took out my Rick Steve's London 2007 travel guide. The museum is the home to more than 13 million objects and is the most comprehensive museum in the world therefore I had to limit my concentration to a few select exhibits. The travel guide maps out a route, which leads you to the Egyptian, Assyrian and Greek exhibits and explains to you what you're looking at. It also provides a picture of most of the historical items so you know what to look for. I found the book very handy and would recommend it to all. Had I not done so I would still be there today.

On my abbreviated tour of the brilliant museum I saw pieces such as the busts of Ramessess II and Amenhotep III in the Egyptian antiquities exhibit. The Greek collection was my favorite. The moderness and technologies of the ancient Greek culture continuously astound me. The collection includes pivotal sculptures from three of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Parthenon, the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos and the Temple of Artemis. Where else can you find such an impressive collection?

The museum itself was established way back in 1753 and was based on the private collection of a physician by the name of Sir Hans Sloane. The exhibits were first open to the public in 1759. Over the years the collection outgrew it’s home and had to be split up amongst other museums.

After I finished with the museum I was pooped! Lucky for me there was a Starbucks located right across the street. I stopped in for a cup of “proper coffee,” as my Scottish friend called it to help me get a second wind of energy.

One of the most incredible things in London is the free access to the museums. The National Gallery, The Museum of London, The Victoria & Albert Museum, The History Museum, The Tate Britain, The Tate Modern, The British Museum and many others are free museums that really deserve a visit.

In my last visit to London I think I went to the British Museum about 4 times. Is a huge museum so is better to visit little by little.

Most incredible collections I think are the Egypt and Middle East Collections. You can see there the famous Rosetta Stone, discovered by Jean François Champollion in 1799 that was a milestone for Egyptology because of the 3 texts in different languages carved in it, hieroglyph, demotic and greek. Comparing the 3 texts Champollion discovered the meaning of the hieroglyphs.
You can see there a lot of statues of pharaos, gods, stelaes, objects and many things from the Egyptian Empire.

The Middle East Collection includes works by babylonians, sumerians, assyrians, persians. One of the highlights of this galleries are the assyrians reliefs of the different palaces of Nimrud and Nineveh. We must think those reliefs were carved about 30 centuries ago and they still surprise people because of the scenes depicted, the way of representing battles, beliefs, all the details contained in those scenes help us to understand the way they lived and a lot of interesting things about the human history such as knowing the development and improvement of the chariots, the kind of musical instruments they had, the fashion at that time...and many other things.

It is very interesting to visit in the Room 56 from Mesopotamia, the Standard of Ur. Is a beautiful object whose function still is unknown. Historians thinks it was a standard and other theories says it was the soundbox for a musical instrument. Whatever it was, the scenes that contains are beautiful, with both sides decorated, one with war scenes and the other with peace scenes.

But as everyone knows, maybe the most famous works in the British Museum are the Elgin Marbles, those bought by Lord Elgin and moved to England. Those marbles are the sculptures and reliefs that once decorated the Parthenon. It is a pity that these works are not in its original place because is very difficult to imagine the magnificent effect they caused when they were admired in the Parthenon, but maybe if they had not been taken to England they wouldn't have survived. Anyway, the visit is worth it.

These are more or less the Highlights of the British Museum but there are also a lot of incredible works by Mayas, Aztecs, Native of North America, China, India...etc.

Is a great experience visit the British Museum for approaching the History and other cultures that are far from us.

If you go to London you should visit the British Museum, but without hurry.

The British Museum is an exceptional collection of artifacts from throughout the world. While controversy over the museum’s possession of Lord Elgin’s Parthenon marbles has raised other concerns whether the museum has the right to keep artifacts from around the world or should return them to the original locations, it currently has the largest, best preserved, and most complete collections of antiquities. Of course, most tourists come to see the Parthenon collection, the Rosetta stone or the Egyptian mummies, the museum is home to impressive Asian, Middle Eastern and ancient British collections. Visits to the museum are on a donation basis, and are well worth the trip if for no other reason than to see the impressive lobby and the major attractions. However, those wishing to give a bit more time will be rewarded by finding their own personal favorite among the collections.

The museum is accessible from the Holborn tube station (Picidilly and Central lines), but make sure you look at a street map beforehand, as the street level signs for the museum are rare and confusing.

The British Museum is The British Museum. Depending on how right on you're feeling, or whether or not you're Greek (because of the marbles), it is either one of the finest collections of antiquities in the world, or a horde of stuff that the Victorians knicked off of each other. Either way, it's huge, fascinating, and totally baffling be turns. Some of the rooms are still quite traditional, which I prefer, with articles linked by geographical region and age and loads of fascinating displays. My particular favorite of that kind was the Asian collections. Then you have the newer kind, which frankly, I don't always like. The amazing Maya stuff is partially obscured by enormous signs likning things thematically but which don't always tell you what the objects actually are. WHich is frustrating, but the quality of the artifacts can outweigh the irritation. I've been about three times and found entire floors I'd never seen before each time!

There is also a cafe, but I'd skip it and have a coffee in the cafes across the road myself. The shop is good.

The museum itself is free, but special exhibits are chargeable and given that the museum doesn't get all of its costs from the government, I think you ought to put something in the donations box. They ask for three pounds, which is less than you'd pay for the equivalent in the US or mainland Europe.

The British Museum is rather overwhelming. There's just so much to see and do that it could never be appreciated in its entirety in just a few days. I took a tour of the Medieval European section and learnt about the history of England up to the 800s as discovered by looking at the graves they've excavated. These artifacts included armor, jewelry, tools, drinking horns and much more. I also saw the Rossetta Stone and toured the Enlightenment Gallery. I especially liked the 'hands-on' displayed where I was able to touch an ancient hand saw, a fossil of an extinct unipod sea creature and a several hundred year one African head rest. Apparently some of the tribes would create fantastic hairdos and in order to keep them intact, they slept on a special wooden rest made for their necks. The museum has an enormous Egyptian section, filled with mummies and other artifacts from the temples and pyramids. There is also a section on Islam, an East Asian section, and artifacts from ancient Greece and Rome. Definately a must-see and worth multiple visits. One visit here is enough to convince you that the British once ruled much of the world.

It’s free, so you can’t beat that. The outside of the building was pretty magnificent, but it’s what’s inside that was great. It’s was a huge array of different art and artifacts from different time periods and countries. There’s something of interest to everyone, my favourite being the Egypt and Greek section. It was also nice seeing something from close to home, as there’s a display of West Coast art from Canada.