The British Museum

My wife and I have been talking about going to London to visit the British Museum for years. Finally last week we did it, and it was well worth the wait. They might as well call it the Museum of all the World's Ancient History, because quite frankly, that's what it is.

I won't get into the politics of how and why the Brits were able to acquire so much of the world's important antiquities. For better or worse, it offers the best cross section of finds that I've seen from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, Greece and Rome. And needless to say, we didn't see everything the museum has to offer. The only other contender, from what I've seen, would be the Vatican Museums.

After landing in London at 6AM local time, we went straight to our hotel, dropped off our bags and went to meet our guide Ingrid at 10AM. We arrived a little early, offering a much-needed opportunity to down some lattes.

Ingrid cut to the chase by taking us straight to the Rosetta Stone, which was surrounded by a sea of tourists and flashing bulbs (yes, the British Museum allows cameras). After a quick glance we meandered through Egypt, where we saw some of the colossal finds of Giovanni Belzoni, including the massive Rameses II head. My wife and I both agreed that the quality of the material we saw is only bested by the Cairo Museum itself.

In the Assyrian exhibit we saw some of the wonderful, massive wall inscriptions from Nimrud and Nineveh. We've seen some of the same at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, but the collection in London is much more significant. The winged bulls were fantastic, although it was dark, so my pictures came out a little fuzzy. The quality of the detail is just fantastic; the hunting scenes combine real majesty with the genuine emotion of the dying lions. You can almost feel their pain.

The famed Elgin Marbles, taken from the Parthenon frieze on top of the Acropolis in Athens, were great to see, but a little bit of a let down in terms of the surviving quality. I guess that I've been hearing about the Marbles for so long that I anticipated them being in near perfect condition - in hindsight a silly assumption for something that sat outside, exposed to the elements, for some 2300 years.

I was greatly surprised, however, to see the surving frieze sculpture from the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (modern Turkey). I didn't know that any of this even existed, except perhaps fragmentary remains in situ. The condition was actually much better than that from the Parthenon, and it genuinely warmed my heart to see it. Ingrid indicated that this section is quite often closed, so we were really fortunate to have the opportunity. We need to get to Turkey!

Other highlights were the so-called Standard of Ur from Sumeria, wonderful Greek and Roman sculpture, including busts of Hadrian and his pal Antinous.

My biggest regret was not getting to the Indian collection until we went back to the Museum a couple of days later, this time without Ingrid. Great Britain obviously has a long history with India, and the extensive collection of ancient Hindu art reflects that. I just don't have the knowledge right now to really appreciate it to its fullest extent!

We did plenty of other things while in London, but the British Museum was a real highlight. We can add it to the list of the world's great ancient history museums!