If you haven’t visited the British Museum yet, you should. And I can guarantee you that once is not enough.
I spent just 3 hours during my last visit years ago and I vowed I would return one day and finish this adventure.
This time I spent nearly 5 hours and still I had to rush through so many of the interesting topics and categories. Guess I have to come back again.
Damn that Indiana Jones! I was already fascinated by ancient civilizations and legends, and he made it worse by making archaeology so exciting and romantic.
It is all about story telling and in this museum, history comes alive.
Be amazed at the feats of the great pharaoh Ramesses II who was venerated as a mighty warrior and living god. He was responsible for many magnificent structures and the prosperity of Egypt during his 66-year reign.
Yes, he also fathered 85 children with a number of queens. I wonder how he managed to find time to do so many things. That’s time management for you.
For me, a major treasure of this museum is the Rosetta Stone. This is like the code breaker which allowed archaeologists to decipher early Egyptain writing and revealed so much of this ancient civilization to us.
I was so fascinated by the Rosetta Stone that I wanted to buy a mini replica at the museum’s souvenir shop. However I was talked out of it, and I bought a Rosetta Stone mouse pad instead.
You should not have a problem finding this museum. Just take the tube and stop at the Tottenham Court Road Station. From there, it is just a 10-minute walk to the museum.
From the outside, I could not imagine that the building could be home to such a massive collection of treasures from all over the world.
The museum has been around since 1753 and it built up its collection of nearly 8 million works and artefacts, largely through Britain’s worldwide dominance for nearly 200 years as a colonial power.
In some cases, the museum’s collection of artefacts can match those remaining in the country of origin.
One advantage of visiting this museum is that its comprehensive collection allows you to trace the history of human culture from the early civilizations to the present. That, I can assure you, can be very challenging and tiring.
Be prepared to do a lot of walking. There are only 3 floors in the museum but the building is very big. We had to do a number of stops to rest our tired legs.
It seems like there is no end to the number of things to see. Just as you finish seeing the exhibits in a big room or hall, there are connecting rooms to the left and right. Now where do you want to go to next?
You cannot afford to stop at every exhibit to admire it or read its caption. You have to be very selective if you want to cover the whole building.
Of course, you can be very systematic and plan your tour. I bought a Visitor’s Guide book for £3.50.
One of the first things it said is that there is no correct way to tour the museum. It’s up to you, your interests, and how much time and energy you have. Right!
However it suggests you can organise your tour based on 5 categories of major cultural and geographical areas covered by the museum. Or you can go by themes such as jewellery, pottery, time, money or writing.
Or you can do it my way – just walk quickly to cover as much ground as possible. Get an overall view, so to speak. Then come back again another day and pick a few topics or civilizations which interest you cand spent some time going through the exhibits.
You should spend another £5 renting a multimedia device which will give you an audio commentary on the objects which interest you.
Some of the objects can be quite beautiful like the Chinese ceramics collection, Indian sculptures or Islamic civilization art.
There is an art piece which I found very interesting in the section on Living and Dying. It shows two lengths of cloth containing over 14,000 drugs. Apparently this is the estimated number presecribed to the average man and woman in Britainn in their lifetime. How about that?
The best part of the museum is that is free. Well most of it is free except for two special exhibitions. The first is Shakespeare: staging the world which will be on until Nov 25 and the other is The horse: from Arabia to Royal Ascot.
You have to pay to see these two exhibitions. I am ok with skipping them as I don’t even have enough time for the free stuff.
This museum is truly a wonder of Britain. Maybe even one of the wonders of the modern world. It is a wonder that it is still free.