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The Ancient World 101
The archeological wonders of the British Museum in London
The Brits have quite possibly the world's greatest archaeological collection, spanning the globe and plumbing back to the very origins of modern civilization in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome and others.
I've been the British Museum roughly two dozen times, and there are still galleries in which I've never even set foot. Several days would not be enough to explore every nook and historical cranny of this fascinating museum. Still, you can probably take a spin through the highlights in 2-3 hours. My advice: Spend a couple of half-days here. After all, it's free.
The treasures inside span the globe and history, from the Rosetta Stone—the key that cracked the code of Egyptian hieroglyphics—to the towering winged bull/men that guarded the gates to Assyrian palaces in 880 BC; and from the 2,000-year-old Lindow Man, ritually strangled and drowned in a peat bog that preserved his shriveled body, to the famous Elgin Marbles, the grandest of the carved reliefs that once decorated Athens' Parthenon. The kids are usually reliably fascinated by room after room of royal Egyptian mummies.
Great Russell St. (a block off Oxford St.)
Tube: Holborn, Tottenham Court Rd, or Russell Sq.
Daily 10am-5:30pm (Thurs–Fri some galleries stay open later, and the Great Court—gift shops—until 11pm)
tel. +44-(0)20-7323-8299
www.britishmuseum.org
Free
Tips
- Planning your time: I'm only half joking when I say you should probably spend all day in the British Museum. You should definitely budget at least two hours—I'd advise half a day (followed by a pub grub lunch at the old Museum Tavern across the street from the main entrance). (
on London Itineraries.)
- British Museum tours: Guided tours of the museum's highlights costs £6 ($12) per person, but specialized "Eye Openers" tours of themed parts of the collections are free.
- Take a tour that goes beyond just the British Museum with our partners at Viator.com:
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This article was last updated in May 2007. All information was accurate at the time.
Copyright © 1998–2010 by Reid Bramblett. Author: Reid Bramblett.
