I love me a good museum!
The Beautiful British Museum
It doesn’t matter if it is science, history, natural history or even sex. I am happy to spend countless hours wandering between the exhibits, learning something new and seeing something remarkable.
Ancient Artifacts
One of my favourite museums has to be the ‘Topkapi Palace’ in Istanbul which houses an extensive collection of exhibits from the Ottoman empire. Books, jewels, armour, tea-sets, furniture and more; many heavily decorated with gemstones, even the clothing.
Assyrian, I think
I visited there when I was 12 years old and I have never forgotten it.
Guarding The Portals
In fact, I would love to go back to Istanbul and one of the main reasons is to revisit this museum with adult eyes.
Ancient Doors
However we have a wealth of museums and galleries within the UK and it was one of the most well known ones in London that I chose to visit recently.
Feet of the Lamassu
The British Museum is set over several floors and sub floors and in total has over 60 galleries that house exhibitions from across the World, many centuries if not millennia old.
An Old Egyptian Friend
In fact, the Museum itself is over 264 years old, opening its doors in 1759. That’s even older than the United States of America!
How Big?
I spent several hours recently looking for specific exhibits in the museum as whilst it wasn’t my first visit to the museum, I had only been there for around 30 mins on one other previous visit as it was pretty much closing time.
Older than My Style!
On that visit, I had managed to view a couple of ancient Egyptian statues and the huge Assyrian ‘Lamassu’ which are winged bull statues that were said to protect the King from supernatural forces.
The Lamassu
I could see so many more exhibits in the galleries on this short visit and knew I wanted to go back and spend more time.
Egyptian Delights
The opportunity arose on a recent theatre trip and I tried to spend as much time learning about all the beautiful exhibits that I could, especially the treasure cache of Sutton Hoo, the Egyptian mummies and more.
Egyptian with Nubian Features?
After spending around 4 or 5 hours walking around looking at marvellous exhibits, I had still only managed to visit 5 galleries and a handful of displays that are around the stairwell areas such as mosaics.
Mosaic Stairwells
The museum really is far bigger than I anticipated; I truly believe I could spend all day there, from open to close for about a month and still not get a chance to see everything.
Ancient Shoes
One of the things that I was a little disappointed about, but totally understood, was the fact that there is a current exhibition on all about ‘Hieroglyphics’
Fan-cy!
This was something that I would have loved to have seen, however it is a ticketed event and it was fully sold out on the day I visited. The disappointment arose from the fact that the famous ‘Rosetta Stone’ had been removed from its usual display and put into the special event.
Well!
As this relic is the whole reason that the mysterious Egyptian writing system was decoded after being a mystery for centuries.
Mummy!
Found in 1799 in Egypt, it was deciphered by Jean-François Champollion in 1822. Three different kinds of scripts, Hieroglyphs, Demotic and Greek script. The realisation that the three kinds of text all said the same thing was an ancient day ‘Enigma Code’.
Ancient Arm RIngs
I have wanted to view the stone for decades and to miss out on the opportunity was, as I said, disappointing. However, it just means that I have to go back again after the exhibition is finished.
Horned Helmet
The Museum, like all of the London Museums is completely free to enter, however there are opportunities to leave donations in large containers to help with the upkeep of the building and its marvellous displays.
Gold Neckplate
Now if you know me at all, you will know I have a huge magnet collection.
A Little Grotesque
I know this seems like I have gone off on a tangent, however I like to pick up magnets, usually the worst made, tackiest magnet from everywhere I visit. I have also been lucky to get some lovely specimens from friends and family on their travels; South Korea, Iceland, Japan, Croatia, and many States of America.
Wax Seals
Whilst the magnets are mainly Countries, I do have a smaller collection of magnets from places of interest. This meant I couldn’t miss out on getting a couple for my collection when I visited the Gift Shop on the way out.
Sutton Hoo Helmet
A Lewis Chessman, a beautiful pin badge of the Sutton Hoo helmet and a strange wooden postcard which featured the Rosetta Stone.
Body Jewellery
All of these will become part of the décor in my office when I return there next week.
Beautiful!
Anyway, the British Museum is somewhere I highly recommend, especially if you have a few hours OR days to kill!
Bracelets Galore
I had a whale of a time there and I know it won’t be long before I return back again, especially once the Rosetta Stone is back on display.
Till next time.
SPSG xxx