The British Museum
The British Museum
Britain’s largest museum looks after the national collection of archaeology and ethnography—more than eight million objects ranging from prehistoric bones to chunks of Athens’ Parthenon, from whole Assyrian palace rooms to exquisite gold jewels.
Main attractions: The Egyptian gallery boasts the world’s second finest collection of Egyptian antiquities outside Egypt, including the Rosetta Stone, carved in 196 B.C.
The British Museum is dedicated to human history, art and culture, and is located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection, numbering some 8 million works, is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence and originates from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present.
The museum's interior:
Top things to see:
Ground Floor:
Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite stele, found in 1799, inscribed with three versions of a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The top and middle texts are in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic script and Demotic script, respectively, while the bottom is in Ancient Greek. As the decree is the same (with some minor differences) in all three versions, the Rosetta Stone proved to be the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Assyrian Lion Hunt reliefs
The royal Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal is shown on a famous group of Assyrian palace reliefs from the North Palace of Nineveh that are now displayed in room 10a of the British Museum. They are widely regarded as "the supreme masterpieces of Assyrian art". They show a formalized ritual "hunt" by King Ashurbanipal (reigned 668 – c. 631/627 BC) in an arena, where captured Asian lions were released from cages for the king to slaughter with arrows, spears, or his sword.They were made about 645–635 BC, and originally formed different sequences placed around the palace. They would probably originally have been painted, and formed part of a brightly coloured overall decor.
Pantheon Sculptures
The pediments and metopes illustrate episodes from Greek mythology, while the frieze represents the people of contemporary Athens in religious procession.
Upper Floor:
The Lewis Chessmen
Chessmen found in Scotland, for playing a game from India and brought to Christian Europe via the Islamic world.
The Oxus Treasure
The Oxus treasure (Persian: گنجینه آمودریا) is a collection of about 180 surviving pieces of metalwork in gold and silver, the majority rather small, plus perhaps about 200 coins, from the Achaemenid Persian period which were found by the Oxus river about 1877-1880.
The Royal Game of Ur
The Royal Game of Ur, also known as the Game of Twenty Squares, refers to an ancient game represented by two gameboards found in the Royal Tombs of Ur in Iraq by Sir Leonard Woolley in the 1920s.
Mummy of Katebet
. Mummy of an old woman named Katebet, once a Chantress of Amun in Karnak, in linen wrappings, with a painted cartonnage mummy-mask with gilded face and attached wooden arms bearing jewellery.
Samurai Armour
Set of armour from Japan. Momoyama period, late 16th century (cuirass and sleeves; Edo period, 17th century (helmet), 18th-19th century (remainder).
Lower Floor:
King of Ife
The Ooni of Ile-Ife (Ọọ̀ni of Ilè-Ifẹ̀) is the traditional ruler of Ile-Ife. This Nigerian town is seen as the cradle of the Yoruba people. The Ooni dynasties go back hundreds of years.
Britain’s largest museum looks after the national collection of archaeology and ethnography—more than eight million objects ranging from prehistoric bones to chunks of Athens’ Parthenon, from whole Assyrian palace rooms to exquisite gold jewels.
Main attractions: The Egyptian gallery boasts the world’s second finest collection of Egyptian antiquities outside Egypt, including the Rosetta Stone, carved in 196 B.C.
The British Museum is dedicated to human history, art and culture, and is located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection, numbering some 8 million works, is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence and originates from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present.
The museum's interior:
Top things to see:
Ground Floor:
Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite stele, found in 1799, inscribed with three versions of a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The top and middle texts are in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic script and Demotic script, respectively, while the bottom is in Ancient Greek. As the decree is the same (with some minor differences) in all three versions, the Rosetta Stone proved to be the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Assyrian Lion Hunt reliefs
The royal Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal is shown on a famous group of Assyrian palace reliefs from the North Palace of Nineveh that are now displayed in room 10a of the British Museum. They are widely regarded as "the supreme masterpieces of Assyrian art". They show a formalized ritual "hunt" by King Ashurbanipal (reigned 668 – c. 631/627 BC) in an arena, where captured Asian lions were released from cages for the king to slaughter with arrows, spears, or his sword.They were made about 645–635 BC, and originally formed different sequences placed around the palace. They would probably originally have been painted, and formed part of a brightly coloured overall decor.
Pantheon Sculptures
The pediments and metopes illustrate episodes from Greek mythology, while the frieze represents the people of contemporary Athens in religious procession.
Upper Floor:
The Lewis Chessmen
Chessmen found in Scotland, for playing a game from India and brought to Christian Europe via the Islamic world.
The Oxus Treasure
The Oxus treasure (Persian: گنجینه آمودریا) is a collection of about 180 surviving pieces of metalwork in gold and silver, the majority rather small, plus perhaps about 200 coins, from the Achaemenid Persian period which were found by the Oxus river about 1877-1880.
The Royal Game of Ur
The Royal Game of Ur, also known as the Game of Twenty Squares, refers to an ancient game represented by two gameboards found in the Royal Tombs of Ur in Iraq by Sir Leonard Woolley in the 1920s.
Mummy of Katebet
. Mummy of an old woman named Katebet, once a Chantress of Amun in Karnak, in linen wrappings, with a painted cartonnage mummy-mask with gilded face and attached wooden arms bearing jewellery.
Samurai Armour
Set of armour from Japan. Momoyama period, late 16th century (cuirass and sleeves; Edo period, 17th century (helmet), 18th-19th century (remainder).
Lower Floor:
King of Ife
The Ooni of Ile-Ife (Ọọ̀ni of Ilè-Ifẹ̀) is the traditional ruler of Ile-Ife. This Nigerian town is seen as the cradle of the Yoruba people. The Ooni dynasties go back hundreds of years.
H Global Rankings 2016
1. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
2. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
3. State Hermitage Museum and Winter Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia
4. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
3. State Hermitage Museum and Winter Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia
4. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
5. National Anthropology Museum, Mexico
6. September 11 Memorial, New York
7. Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain
8. British Museum, London, UK
9. Acropolis Museum, Athens
10. Vasa Museum, Stockholm, Sweden
General Information:
Location:Great Russell St, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 3DG, UK
Tickets:
Adult, £16.50
Under 16, free
Accompanied by a paying adult
Groups, £13 per person
Price per person, Monday – Friday only (10 or more people, phone booking only, group organiser goes free)
Senior, £16.50
£8.25 after 12.00 on Mondays (phone bookings and walk-up only)
Student and 16–18 years, £13
2-for-1 tickets on weekdays after 14.30 (phone booking and walk-up only)
Unemployed person, £13
£1 after 12.00 on Mondays (phone booking and walk-up only)
Disabled person, £13
Assistant – free (booking required)
National Art Pass, £8.25
Hours:
| Saturday | 10AM–5:30PM |
| Sunday | 10AM–5:30PM |
| Monday
(Easter Monday)
| 10AM–5:30PM
Hours might differ
|
| Tuesday | 10AM–5:30PM |
| Wednesday | 10AM–5:30PM |
| Thursday | 10AM–5:30PM |
| Friday | 10AM–8:30PM |
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