British museum

The British Museum (British Museum) in London is also one of the oldest museums in the world, one of the collections of antiquities largest and most famous in the world.

British Museum, London
BritánicoMuseo British Museum, Nereid Monument

Nereid Monument at the Museum BritánicoBritish Museum, mummies
The famous mummies of British MuseumMuseo British, Hall
main atrium of the British Museum
Today the British Museum receives more than 5 million visitors a year, making it the third most visited museum in the world, behind the Louvre in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

The collection

The museum was created in 1753 and was finally opened to the public on 15 January 1759. The origins of the British Museum are linked to the physical and collector Hans Sloane, who wanted his collection of over 80,000 items should endure after his death. Among the objects in the collection they were included more than 40,000 books and antiquities from Greece, Rome, Egypt, Middle East and America.

The first location was the British Museum Montagu House, a mansion of the XVI century began to run small due to the rapid growth of the collections, both for purchases made by the museum, and the different donations.

In 1782 considerably it increased the collection of pieces of Greek and Roman origin and after this, in 1801 the museum acquired a lot of Egyptian antiquities, among which includes the impressive Rosetta Stone (thanks to which they have been able to translate Egyptian) hieroglyphics. In 1823 King George IV donated the library of his father completely, so the museum building began staying small.

In 1857 he completed the construction of the new museum building, located at its previous location, which is what remains to this day.

In 1887, due to lack of space, the collection of natural objects moved to the Museum of Natural History, and in 1973 the British Library Museum independence.

Exhibitions



More than seven million objects from all continents who owns the museum, are arranged according to their place of origin. The museum has such extension, to visit unhurriedly would need to spend more than a day, but to see the most important one morning may suffice.

One party worth noting is the Great Court located in the center of the museum, a huge space with a glass cover in the reading room of the British Library is.



Throughout the different rooms you can find any type of object, from Chinese porcelain, prehistoric and medieval to antiques or coins and medals from different periods. The most striking parts of the museum are the section of Ancient Egypt (the best after the Egyptian Museum), and ancient Greek.

One of the best

The British Museum is the most entertaining city museum for those who do not like too much pictures and culturizarse prefer otherwise. The museum is free and on Thursdays and Fridays, closes later than most museums, making it the perfect choice for a cold London afternoon enjoying good art.