Sign in with Facebook"The British Museum" London Travelogue by sjvessey
London Travel Guide: 26,558 reviews and 43,850 photos
Right from the start, the British Museum looks pretty imposing... even the front door is enormous.
Walk through the door, and almost the first place you come to is the newly-refurbished Great Court - apparently the largest covered courtyard in the country. It's only just opened to the public, believe it or not. The circular building in the centre is the old famous Reading Room, and the reason the courtyard wasn't open before is that this whole area was full of books belonging to the British Library! But the library has moved house and now you can enjoy this space for yourself.
Start off with Ancient Egypt, on your left as you walk through the door. This creature guards the entrance to the main Egyptian room, and stands over 10 feet tall.
One of the first things you see as you enter the room is the Rosetta Stone - the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics.
From Egypt walk through a doorway and you'll find yourself in Ancient Greece. The remains of a temple of some kind are the first thing you'll see.
Just next door is the Parthenon Room proper... home to the world-renowned Elgin Marbles.
Some might say they were stolen and should be returned to Greece, but for the time being at least, here they remain.
There are all kinds of weird creatures on display (!).
In fact, two whole walls of this long room are lined with bas-relief carvings.
At the far end, headless, armless, legless torsos are all that's left of the statues of various deities.
Another room, more larger than life statues.
And finally, the head and shoulders of an enormous horse - if this thing still had it's legs it'd stand at least 10 feet tall would be my guess.
Don't you just wish you had this many arms? I doubt the woman in its clutches is impressed, however...
Here we have a man sitting on a park bench.
This statue of the Buddha is quite recent, dating from the 19th century.
This Native American chief's clothes were acquired by the museum after his death, in 1927. The headdress is made of the tail feathers of immature eagles. They were quite valuable in their day, apparently, with 12 feathers being worth one pony.
Nearby, an eagle totem stands and stares.
The remains of a helmet excavated from the Sutton Hoo burial site. If you look closely, you'll see that the actual remains make up probably less than 10% of this thing - all the smooth brown areas are just filler.
A modern-day reconstruction of what the helmet would have looked like when it was all shiny and new, made by the Royal Armourers in Leeds.
Part of the horde of gold known as the Oxus Treasure.
The Portmouth Font - a 22 carat gold piece commissioned by a guy with too much money for his son's christening. It's quite big - about 12 inches on a side. Think of how many gold earrings you could make out of this!
This engimatic figure, which once looked out over the Pacific from remote Easter Island, now stands guard over the cafeteria in the Great Court...
Back in Egypt, look down the length of the room. My, Mr Wolf, what a large head you have.
Spend some time in this Egyptian room - there's a lot of things to see. The place just exhudes age. It's very impressive indeed.
Up on the first floor, Egypt continues. With the mummy rooms! Oooooh. And they didn't just mummify humans, I'll have you know. Check out this mummified cat!!!
Ok, so you want to see a REAL mummy... well your wish is my command...
Perhaps the poor old thing would feel more comfortable lying in one of these...
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Comments (181)
what about little country houses,too far from London?it's all about "real London"
i dont mind so much the weather, it s more the cost of living here!
ROFL re your accomm and customs tips.. you lucky thing to live there! I live in Wombles, love my little place, but dont have the river! Green with envy ;) Thanks goodness not all Brits are CHAVS. Jen x
Your info about cheap places to eat in London is really useful to me, as I'll be there for the first time in October and my budget is really low do to the exchange rate. Thank you!
Hmmm, I know some of those thoughts on the British. Shame the wave of madness isn't quite over; the Daily Mail & some authors like to reminds us still it seems. Jem
Good tips, great photos, plenty of cynicism. Nice one
excellent tips there simon - provides me good info for my trip to europe next yr.. :-)
Your tips are very useful. I hope I can use any of them when I'll be in London in the beginning of July.
What a nasty little racist diatribe on 'British' people you have on your home page. Have you thought that perhaps it is you that makes people behave in a certain way towards you?
WOW WOW WOW! Thanks ,Simon!
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