About I week ago I went the British Museum. It is the third most visited museum in the world, behind the Louvre and the Met, and has some of the most interesting artifacts from around the world. Here is a very brief tour.
Before I begin, a word of warning to people who like sushi and are desperate enough to try it in London. Itsu sushi tastes of garbage; don't ever try it! It looks appetizing, but it's a trap.
To begin with, here is the outside of the museum, already looking impressive:
The Hall of Enlightenment - one of the original rooms of the museum. They have some very ancient artifacts:
Tablets from Babylon, 600 B.C.
Marble bust of Hercules, from 2nd century AD, found at the foot of mount Vesuvius
Apparently some super ancient tool. Looks like a rock to me:
A very big spearhead. Someone was compensating for something...
The Lothair Cyrstal (middle left) , a very famous engraved gem:
A helmet from a ship burial site, Sutton Hoo. One of four surviving masks dating to the early 7th century. Left is the actual mask, right is what it would have looked like.
Greek urns, like in the Disney movie Hercules:
A replica of the Rosetta Stone and where it was originally displayed:
From the Mexican gallery, a mosaic mask of Tezcatlipoca. The base for this mosaic is a human skull:
A special modern exhibit called "Living and Dying". The tiny dots are all the pills an average adult takes over their lifetime:
China section:
Two statues from the Ming dynasty, apparently portraying two judges of hell, one with the list of all your good deeds (on the left) and one with a much larger list of all your sins (on the right):
Some Buddhist relics:
A special temporary exhibit, showing the art of Asian propaganda. No one does it better!
Japanese exhibit with cool samurai gear!
In the Africa section, sits The Throne of Weapons, similar to the Iron Throne, but more modern:
A head from Easter Island (Hoa Hakananai'a). How did they get this!?
The mysterious crystal skull, inspiring the Indiana Jones movie...
Ancient lion statue in the front:
There was an ice cream break at this time:
Their coin collection is quite impressive. Here is a vase containing solid gold coins:
Ancient counterfeit coins:
Money printing machine:
Moving on to the famous clock room:
Here is a very fascinating "rolling ball" clock: a marble takes 30 seconds to roll down a flat board. Once it reaches the end, a spring tilts the board the other way so the marble can continue to roll. Not a very accurate clock, but the marble travels about 2500 miles per year:
A battleship clock. The canons are supposed to fire at a set alarm.
More cool objects. At this point, I was too overwhelmed to look too closely at what they do:
The earliest known mosaic of Jesus:
The most extensive collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts, mummies and all!
And here is the original, actual Rosetta Stone, now protected by a glass case so tourists can't ruin it.
So these are about 50% of the pictures that I have actually taken, as the hoard of stuff is really quite staggering. A few veterans of the museum will realize that I haven't even hit many of the other famous objects, as tired as I was (I paid too much attention to the earlier sections). Overall, a very impressive display of how far the British Empire stretched and their ability to take all the most beloved treasures of every nation. Good going!
