London Art Tours - for the visitor to London who wishes to view and experience the incomparable art and architecture of the city, its galleries and exhibitions.

[London Art Tours - National Gallery, Tower Bridge, London Eye, Tate Modern]






British Museum

Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG
tel: 020-7636 1555
www.british-museum.org
tube: Tottenham Court Road/Holborn

Galleries: Sat-Weds 10:00-17:30, Thurs-Fri 10:00-20:30

Great Court: Sun-Weds 9:00-18:00, Thurs-Sat 9:00-23:00

admission free (charges for temporary exhibitions)

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The British Museum is one of the most important museums anywhere in the world. It displays the art and culture of mankind throughout history.

A staggering six million objects are held, including fragments from two of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World. An idea of the breadth of the collections can be gained from the names of the various departments of the museum: Egypt, Greece & Rome, Pre-History & Early Europe, Ancient Near East, Oriental, Japanese, Ethnography, Coins & Medals, Prints & Drawings and Medieval & Modern Europe.

Through the imposing portico of Sir Robert Smirke's 1847 building, you will enter the Great Court, one of the largest covered spaces in Europe, designed by Foster & Partners and opened in 2000.

In the centre of the Great Court stands the Reading Room under a dome only two feet less in diameter than The Pantheon in Rome. Since it opened in 1857 many of the greatest names in British literature came here to study. Karl Marx visited almost daily for thirty years and it was here that he wrote much of Das Kapital.

Displayed in a gallery of their own are The Parthenon Marbles, the frieze, metopes and pediment figures from the Parthenon in Athens. Dating from the middle of the fifth century BC they are considered one of the greatest achievements of Classical Greek Art.

Egyptian antiquities include the world-famous mummy collection and the Rosetta Stone, the inscriptions on which were to prove the key which unlocked the meaning of hieroglyphics.

  • Assyrian Bulls, Khorsabad, c.710 BC
  • Assyrian Lion Hunt, Nineveh, C7 BC
  • Benin Bronzes, Nigeria, C16
  • Caryatid from the Erectheion, Greece, C5 BC
  • Egyptian Mummies
  • False Door of Ptashepses, Egypt, c.2400 BC
  • Lewis Chessmen, Scandinavia, C12
  • Mildenhall Treasure, England, C4
  • Parthenon Sculptures, Greece, C5 BC
  • Portland Vase, Rome, C1
  • Rameses II, Egypt, c.1250 BC
  • Rosetta Stone, Egypt, 196 BC
  • Royal Gold Cup, France, c. 1380
  • Temple of Artemis, Ephesus, C4 BC
  • Tomb of Maussolus, Halikarnassos, C4 BC
With collections as extensive as those held by the British Museum, a highlights tour from a London Art Tours guide will ensure that you see some of the greatest achievements of world cultures - the very famous as well as the lesser-known objects, so easily missed by the casual visitor.

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