The British Museum, London: Home of Magnificent Art and Antiquities

The British Museum in London, England, is a fascinating place to visit. The museum first opened its doors to the public on Jan. 15, 1759, and has remained open ever since except during World War I and World War II.

Within the walls of the museum you will find a collection of art and antiquities from ancient and living cultures.

There are several different galleries to explore within the museum each holding a number of rooms these cover; Africa, the Americas, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Rome, Asia, Europe, the Middle east, Themes and changing exhibitions.

Lets take a quick peek at some of the rooms

Rooms 62-63

These rooms are dedicated to Egyptian death and afterlife. Here you will find a magnificent collection of coffins, mummies, funerary masks and portraits.

Room 25

Room 25 is based on Africa and the museum has a collection of over 200,000 African items which encompass archaeological and contemporary material from across the continent.

Rooms 92-94

Ancient and modern Japan can be explored in these rooms. These rooms contain collections of fine porcelain, Samurai warrior swords, woodblock prints and 20^th century Manga comic books.

Room 49

This room takes us back to Roman Britain. Exploring this room helps us to get some real understanding how the Roman occupation of Britain really transformed the country.

The British Museum also has exhibitions that change on a regular basis. At the moment and showing until 27^th January 2008 the museum is exhibiting The Divine Cat: Speaking to The Gods in Ancient Egypt.

In Ancient Egypt bronze statues of cats were used to communicate with the Gods. This exhibition gives us a greater insight into this belief.

At the moment an extremely popular exhibition taking place is the exhibition of the First Emperor and this will be on show until 6^th April 2008. This fantastic exhibition gives us an insight into China's first Emperor and the legacy that he left behind. Here you will see a number of the famous terracotta Warriors from Xi'an China which were buried with the first Emperor.

This particular exhibition does have a small entrance fee but is worth every penny.