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.

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.

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