"Come on, Mom!" My eleven year old tugged impatiently at my arm as we ambled at parental pace through the awe-inspiring open space of the Great Court of the British Museum. His impatience was pardonable, given how much time he’d already spent studying and preparing reports on ancient Egypt for school. Now here he was primed to see the Rosetta stone, mummies, hieroglyphs, and all things Egyptian. The British Museum, which houses one of the best collections of Egyptian artifacts outside Cairo, was the perfect place to take him.

The scope of the Egyptian collection at the British Museum is impressive – spanning over five thousand years, from the pre-dynastic period through the millennia of dynasties, then through the Roman and Coptic periods, and onward through the Ottoman conquest of Egypt. It includes monumental statues, sarcophagi, hieroglyphic tablets, jewelry, household objects, scarabs, shabti, and, of course, mummies. It’s hard to imagine, touring the Egyptian collection today (it contains more than 100,000 objects), that it all began with about 150 small and poorly-understood pieces collected by Sir Hans Sloane, one of the 18th century’s great English "gentlemen collectors." Sloane’s private library and diverse collection later became the foundation of the Museum’s collection when it was established in 1753.

None of these facts, however, impressed my son. The Rosetta stone was first on his "to see" list, and we soon found ourselves standing before it. What would have happened, I wondered, if Bonaparte hadn’t invaded Egypt in 1798, setting up an institute in Cairo to collect and study antiquities? It was the later seizure of this French horde in 1801 by the victorious British that ushered in the golden age of Egyptology.

Today, visitors can choose from free "Eyeopener" tours of the museum (check the daily tour schedule), audio tours, or simply take advantage of the information posted in the museum. Since the Museum is vast, I’d recommend focussing on a particular area of interest – as we did with the Egyptian collection.

The Museum caters to children, not only in providing special tours and events at the Museum, but also in a broader educational sense. We did a great deal of "cyber visiting" at the Museum’s wonderful Ancient Egypt interactive learning site. Exploring this site will give any child of elementary or middle school age a lively introduction to Egypt and enhance his or her trip to the Museum.

In fact, as we entered a room with funerary objects, I began to appreciate just how well prepared my son was. "Look, shabtis!" he exclaimed, pointing to the small statues that are buried in a tomb to serve as servants in the afterlife. Later, we stood before an elaborate sarcophagus, deciphering drawings and hieroglyphs: here was the symbol for Ma’at, goddess of justice; there was Anubis, weighing the heart of the deceased against Ma’at’s feather.

This, I reflected, was the best part of visiting a museum: kindling ancient enthusiasms in modern hearts.

The British Museum is the treasure chest of the world, with Sumer statues, the Mausoleum of Halikarnassus, mummies of Egypt, and treasures from Ephesus. It is all there. Almost anywhere historical where I have been, I have heard that some pieces were not present because they were being exhibited in the British Museum.

It is located a huge, luminous building in Bloomsbury. It may take a few days to see it all. But the museum management makes life easy for the visitor by closing some of the halls when they do not feel like exhibiting that day, with the excuse that they do not have enough personnel. That’s surprising, because none of the souvenir shops or countless restaurants are closed during museum hours due to lack of personnel.

The museum does not follow a chronological order, or any order at all. For example, you can see Greek statues on main floor, first floor, and lower floor. It is like this all over the museum. I found this very inconvenient and incorrect.

You can see the collection on the Internet before you leave, and once you are there, you know where to visit. For making your own guided tours, see www. Britishmuseum.ac.uk

There are so many wonderful museums in London, so you really need to narrow it down when travelling with kids in order to make it enjoyable for everyone. We chose the British Museum, or as one of our friend's son's pointed out, "The Museum of Stolen Artifacts."

The best way to see this museum with kids is to decide ahead of time what you want to see, go straight to see it, enjoy it, and leave. The museum has a great website, so you can check out what you're interested in and be prepared. (We had five kids with us, ages 14, 13, 12, 11, and 10--not all ours!) We all enjoyed the Egyptian wing with the mummies and the Rosetta Stone. We also enjoyed seeing the Elgin Marbles, as we knew were later travelling to Athens. It was all fascinating, andyet we were in and out within an hour or so. We knew we had many more museum visits ahead in our travels, so we wanted to make it meaningful and enjoyable for the kids.

Be sure to also check out the beautiful library in the center courtyard. We also enjoyed taking the Tube to Covent Garden and then walking to the British Museum from there. There were lots of places to eat, and it was great people-watching. We did get a bit lost, so it's good to have a city map with you.

This is one world-class museum nobody can miss! And it's the best price in the world, FREE! Even the kids will like it! If you are without children on the visit, plan to spend at least half a day there, as it is so huge, it just takes that long to see the important stuff. I recommend taking an afternoon to see it. Tours and school groups tend to come in the mornings and that makes the museum crowded. Crowds make me feel overwhelmed and often the more important pieces are hard to see.

If you chose to go, you must see the Egyptian collection, the Greek and Roman collection (which includes the Elgin Marbles -- the Parthenon Friezes), and the Near Eastern sections. The bulk of these are on the first floor of the museum and are often jumbled up together. The Near Eastern collection includes a great deal of artwork from ancient Iraq and the section is almost always empty. The museum can be fickle about letting people in that section, especially if its crowded (the space is rather narrow), but be persistent. Slightly out of the way on the first floor is a collection from the Mausoleum of Hallicarnasus, an important Greek monument from Turkey. Don't miss it – it’s cool and you won't find as many tourists there as in the neighboring Elgin marbles. Also don't miss the Egyptian mummies on the second floor! The mummies are almost always crowded, but well worth the agony! If you have time, see the Roman Britain section on the second floor.

The new courtyard in the center of the museum is a great place to relax and have a cup of coffee and tea, too.

I kept telling myself that it would be overwhelming to try to squeeze a quick visit to one of the world’s greatest collections of human cultural history into our 1 week in London, but how could I not at least check it out? I mean, at least we could see the Rosetta Stone, if nothing else… So I dragged my companions to the Tottenham Court Road Tube stop and we forged on.

The first shock I received after walking in the main entrance was discovering that photography is allowed!! This was almost too much for me to take, especially since that was the day I had absentmindedly left the hotel without my camera! Luckily, though, my daughter had hers, and allowed me the use of it whenever I wished. We allowed ourselves only a few hours here, soaking up all that we possibly could.

The museum is divided roughly into the following areas: Britain & Europe, Ancient Near East, Egypt, Greece & Rome, Americas, Asia, and Africa. There are free gallery "eyeOpener" tours, guided tours, and audio tours available; we found the museum guides to be quite willing to help us locate a particular section or answer a question. In addition to hours of potential browsing, there are lectures, workshops, films, and children’s activities, such as drawing materials, games, and free hands-on sessions with genuine museum objects. There is a marvelous souvenir shop (though rather pricey), the Court Restaurant, a couple of self-service cafes, and even a family picnic area with vending machines.

For me, one of the most unforgettable sights was kind of hidden away back in the Greek & Roman Antiquities area. It was a Caryatid, which is a sculpture of a maiden that served as one of six columns of a building on the Acropolis of Athens. It was made in 415 BC and stood 2.31m tall. To me, the loveliness of this piece really stood out.

The British Museum is open daily from 10am until 5:30pm (8:30pm Thursday and Friday). Admission is free.