The British Museum (an attempt of a review)

The British Museum

Located in the Bloomsbury area of London, The British Museum, founded in 1759 as the first of its kind to charge no admission fee, is well known today for its huge amount of visitors, being able to reach the figure as high as six million people every year.

Its massive variety of departments and galleries make it astonishingly impressive to tourists that come from all over the world to see them. They surely experience a voyage in time and History: from the pre-historic societies to the world we live in nowadays.

Although visiting the museum is not as easy as a one-day tour, it might be more rewarding than expected. It is so compelling and sophisticated that it may take longer than thought at first, but surely much more enjoyable. Home to more than ten different departments, the artifacts to be contemplated may seem endless, but at the same time, as gripping as it can be.

Among the most interesting departments, could be the Ancient Greek and Sudan, the Pre-history and Europe, the Ancient Greece and Rome, as well as The Prints and draws, The Asia, Africa and Americas and, finally, The Conservation and Scientific research department.

In the Ancient Egypt rooms, the visitor will find the mummies gallery, with its painted coffins and preserved bodies that fascinate us all. The embalming and mummification processes, dating as old as three thousand years ago, demonstrate the level of sophistication and mastery required in those burial rituals which certainly amaze everyone.

Another iconic object dating from the Ancient Egypt, which has significant research importance up to nowadays, is The Rosetta Stone, that is considered to be one of the most famous artifacts in the museum.

According to the museum’s researchers, a significant amount of information and knowledge of the human kind history has become accessible through burials’ remains. One of the best examples of it is the burial chamber remains found in Eastern England, dating from the seventeenth century, which revealed the famous Sutton Hoo helmet to the modern researchers, establishing important links of the Anglo-Saxon culture.

The same way, it was discovered that in Asia, burials were as sophisticated as it can be imagined, including figures of officials, military men and even camels, who were believed to serve the dead in the after-life.

The temples and acropolis of the Parthenon of Athens and Greece are another classic example of the astonishment provoked by the ancient world and its art.

But, not only ancient civilizations impress the visitors. Other religious times are represented in crowded galleries in the museum, such as the medieval times and Christianity rooms, with their extraordinarily expensive objects. Besides, there are the southeast India galleries that display mind-blowing figures of Buddha and Shiva.

With the same interest and pleasure the visitor to the British Museum is be able to see the galleries whose artifacts date from more modern days, such as the collection of badges, in the Medals and Coins department. Likewise, The prints and draws galleries, which displays drawings of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Rembrandt and others, is surely unmissable.

The BM also helds a National Collection worth visiting, depicting big themes in their works: like racism and military victories.

Besides all that, the museum counts on the Conservation and Scientific research department that can be as stunning as its collections. It is constituted of a busy team that works hard to keep the objects in their best possible conditions, using all sorts of material.

According to the museum’s curators, the most important aim of the museum is not only to display the biggest variety of extraordinary objects, but to enable the visitors to use these things to understand how societies define themselves by what they think of love, war, peace and death.

This voyage into the past, in their words, transforms the way we see the present, and this can be the most valuable message we certainly learn after this lifetime experience visiting the British Museum. 

 June 20, 2016