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The British Museum

London, London, United Kingdom

The British Museum

Inside the British Museum

The British Museum houses a very large collection of artifacts covering almost every period of human history. Their collection includes mummies and egyptian statues, greek and roman statues and artwork, pots and jars from every conceivable place and time period, clocks, coins, and artwork. Some of the highlights of the collection include the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon Marbles.

We visited the museum on a Saturday, and it was quite busy. There were guided talks available of different rooms throughout the day. We followed around one of the guides through the Egypt rooms, and she pointed out some of the highlights. We tried to do the same in one of the Roman rooms, but the guide was very quiet and boring, so we just looked around on our own.

There was a really neat set of displays set up when we visited - the BBC had selected 100 items that collectively told the story of humanity's highlights throughout history. The location of each item was marked on the map, along with a very brief description of the artifact. There are accompanying audio lectures available on the BBC website (which would have made the artifacts even more interesting), but we didn't know about them before visiting.

At the time we visited, personal non-commercial photography was permitted.

Cost

Admission to the British Museum was free. Donations were accepted, and visitors could also buy guide books in the main lobby. Simple maps were available for free.

Estimated Visiting Time

The British Museum is simply huge, and there is far too much to see here. Visitors could spend an entire day here, but it would be tiring. One hour is probably sufficient to quickly go through and see all the highlights, but leaving 2-3 hours would allow a more leisurely and measured pace.