British Museum, London

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This museum is in a building that looks like a museum, with its Greek columns. Inside there are halls for varius periods and places in the world's history. There is too much to absorb in one visit, so it is a blessing that entry is free, except to special exhibitions.
My favourites are the Egyptian hall and the Assyrian, because I can relate to these areas.

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My husband and I had been wandering around the St Giles/Shaftsbury Avenue area and decided to go to the British Museum which would be a first visit for him.
Like most museums it is free, though some exhibitions have to be paid for. There were scores of school groups queuing up for an exhibition on Hadrian, so we decided to concentrate on the Egyptian and Assyrian halls. Finished with them we decided a snack was in order, but the queues for sandwiches and coffee in the cafes and Great Court were so long, we opted to go outside instead.
Opening times;
10.00-17.30 daily
The Great Court is open Sunday-Wednesday 09,00-18.00
Thursday- Saturday 09.00-23.00.
All closed 1 January, 24-26 December

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The British Museum is probably the best museum in the world. What a fantastic place it is and admission is free. Founded in 1753, as the biggest museum in the world, it now has more than eighty galleries on three floors, and houses over six million artefacts. It is primarily an archaeological museum, with superb collections of valuable objects from Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Middle East and Far East, collected mainly during the halcyon days of the British Empire. The only problem is that some of the countries they were collected from are asking for them back again! Popular exhibits include Egyptian mummies and sarcophagi, the colossal bust of Ramesses II, the Elgin Marbles, stone reliefs from Nineveh and Persepolis, the Rosetta Stone and the Sutton Hoo Helmet.

The museum is so big that it can overwhelm you at first. At the centre of it all is the Great Court, designed by Norman Foster and opened in 2000 as the largest covered square in Europe. I'd recommend buying a museum map at the entrance for £2 or you will find the place quite bewildering. As well as the permanent exhibitions, there are also excellent temporary exhibitions, for which there is an admission fee. The current one, which runs until October 26, 2008, is entitled "Hadrian: Empire & Conflict" and costs £12.

Opening hours: Daily 10am-5.30pm

The British Museum is one of the great museums of the world, with priceless artefacts from all over the world and every civilisation of note. Particularly famous is its Ancient Egypt and Sudan collection, including the famous Rosetta Stone discovered by Napoleon's army which led to the deciphering of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Also notable are the Greek and Roman collections - the former includes the controversial Elgin Marbles, taken (stolen?) from Athens' Parthenon. Beyond the exhibits, the Museum is a pleasant place to be, especially its newly renovated and airy Great Court, which houses shops, eateries and the famous Reading Room. Guide books with maps and self-guided audio tours in various languages are available. Museum volunteers also conduct various themed tours from time to time (check the website for details).

Open daily from 1000 to 1730. Admission is free (though a donation would be appreciated). Special exhibitions usually require a paid, timed ticket.

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Last visit August 2008, free special exhibit, The American Scene Prints from Hopper to Pollock is there until September 7, 2008, is worth a look

It's impossible to see all of the British Museum in a day and at some point during the day you'd probably be suffering from museum overload anyway. Fortunately it's free to visit every day so you can visit for a couple of hours at a time or if you are a frequent visitor to London, you can see a different part every time you visit London.

The museum guide has a list of highlights if your time is short and include the Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian Room, the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens (a controversial exhibit due to ownership issues) and the Black Obelisk. If your time is short or you want to visit the highlights of the museum, you might consider taking the 90 minute highlight tour for an additional fee or picking up one of the audio tours

Almost every time I'm in London, I make sure I at least nip into the British Museum for half an hour or so. Although having said that, you could spend an entire day there and you still wouldn't have seen everything.

I love the Egyptian and Assyrian departments on the ground floor.

Most famous exhibit is probably the Rosetta Stone.

There is no entry free but you are asked for a donation.

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I'm not a huge museum buff but I liked the British Museum a lot. I wish I had more time to see it all.

My favorite part of the museum was that it offered so much to see in a very logical order. I liked the fact that there were so many artifacts from ancient times. The descriptions were easy to read but had a lot of information on them and you weren't left with the thought of "what exactly am I seeing".

If I remember correctly entrance was free, although I'm sure they take donations. There seemed to be a lot of things for kids to see and the staff was friendly and very helpful.

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The British Museum in London is one of my favorite places and ranks as #6 of my "Top 10 Things to do in London" list. On my last trip in May 2008, my mom and I skipped the British Museum due to lack of time. (Instead we went to the King Tutankhamum exhibit at the O2 in Greenwich.)

The British Museum has an amazing collection of Egyptian artifacts--presumably the best in the world outside of Egypt. Their collection includes the Rosetta Stone--which is the "tablet" that allowed early scholars to decipher hieroglyphs. (That alone, in my opinion, warrants a visit to the museum. But, I'm an Egyptian fanatic, so my opinion may be a little biased.) Their Egyptian collection consists of sarcophagi, mummies, jewelry, statues, and portions of temples. The British Museum also has wonderful collections from Babylon, Asia (India, China, and Islam), Africa, and Greece.

Entrance to the museum is free (a rarity in London). Opening hours are 10 AM-5:30 PM Sat-Wed, and 10 AM-8:30 PM Thurs and Fri. They do allow photography.