The British Museum is one of the world's greatest historical collections. Vast and confounding, the many rooms include the Rosetta Stone and a great collection of Egyptian antiquities, as well as the Elgin Marbles.

Plan your visit well, and take advantage of the many comprehensive guidebooks available. Audio tours can also be helpful.

The museum recently reopened all its rooms after a vast renovation that will hopefully improve navigation.

Although you could spend weeks perusing the collections, don't miss the famed Rosetta stone or the Egyptian galleries.

Opening hours are 10-17:30, til 20:30 on Thursday and Friday. Use the Russell Square or Tottingham Court Road Tube stations for easiest access.

The British Museum is the Smithsonian of the U.K. When first walking into the museum, you know you are in for a treat by the decorative carvings on the roof of the entrance.

The museum is one of the very few freebies in London. Combine that with the unparalleled collection of antiquities and this is a must see. If you have limited time, then I would suggest seeing the Greek/Roman exhibit and the Egyptian exhibit first. Otherwise, if you plan on making this a multiday event, then please take your time and enjoy everything the museum has to offer.

I found the Roman/Greek exhibit to be flat out, awe-inspiring. There are hundreds of marble statues on display, many of which depict politicians and characters from mythology. Hercules, Pericles, Athena, and Pan are a few of the representations you will see. Look for the majority of the busts and statues in the basement of the museum.

Among the other sites in the Roman/Greek exhibit, are the Acropolis, the front entrance to a temple and numerous pieces of jewelry and pottery.

The Egyptian exhibit was what I really came to see. I had always heard the British had an astounding collection and I was not let down. Statues of ancient god-kings, sarcophagi, the Rosetta Stone, stone tablets, jewelry and mummies are many of the pieces that will catch your eye. I found it amazing that the Egyptians could construct many of these items with simple bronze tools, water, natural elements and simple mathematics.

Besides those exhibits, the museum has exhibits dedicated to the Assyrians/Babylonians, Africans, Orientals, Eastern Indians and Middle Easterns. The bulk of the Oriental/Indian exhibit was pottery and earthenware, all of which I skimmed through. The Assyrian/Babylonian exhibit had a nice display of ancient furniture, altars, weaponry and statues.

Anyone visiting London should make this a "must see" when in the city. It’s truly the experience of a lifetime.

The British Museum is a Mecca for historical enthusiasts everywhere. It houses the finest collection of archaeological and historical artefacts in the World, covering cultures from every corner of the Globe.

Despite some of its best known exhibits having been collected from abroad, notably from the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean, the Middle East and North Africa, the Museum also displays the finest and most historically important artefacts discovered across Britain, and especially England. One of the major exhibits of the Egyptian department is the basalt slab known as the Rosetta Stone. The Greek treasures include the Elgin Marbles and a caryatid from the Erechtheum.

The British Museum is a behemoth of a museum, but a glorious one. Visiting the museum can be a bit overwhelming, though, unless you determine what parts of the museum you're most interested in visiting. For example, I decided to take a look at the Mildenhall Treasure and Anglo Saxon section on this visit, as in former visits I'd seen the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern sections. Still, there are vast sections of the museum I've never had stamina to visit.

Some of the highlights of the museum include the Elgin Marbles, the Rosetta Stone, and an amazing collection of mummies and other Egyptian artefacts (the best outside of Egypt, in fact). There are guides to and quick tours of the museum's highlights, such as the "Highlights" tour offered three times a day (8 pounds; tickets can be purchased in the Great Court). However, you may find such a whirlwind approach almost overwhelming. My advice, therefore, is to concentrate on one section of the museum and take your time. You can even sign up for a free Eye Opener tour and concentrate on a specific collection in the museum.

The newly built Great Court, built around the former British Library Reading Room, provides a wonderful place for the weary museum goer to sit in an open, airy space and have tea or browse through the museum shops. The Reading Room itself is my favorite part of the museum, a wonderfully historic place, filled floor-to-ceiling with rare first editions.

The very first time I visited the British Museum, it was being over run with students on a multitude of class field trips. At first I thought, "oh no...I heard about these kinds of days...." But because it was the first trip, I had to go anyway, after all what kind of traveler would I be if I let that type thing stop me..
Boy was I lucky....The museum was undergoing a major reconstruction period in 1999, and things were a little confused, but still beautiful.
The things I thought would make the visit uncomfortable, were the exact things that made it wonderful. The kids all over the museum, brought forth all of the wonder, all of the awe these children were experiencing for the first time as well...I got to see the Museum and through the experience, the World, through the eyes of kids and parents that were willing to take the time to explain the wonders of the world...I looked at all of the wonderous things there as one of the citizens of the world.
I remember a group of kids looking at the mummies with their teacher and one child asked her teacher while looking at an adult and child mummies grouped together in a case,
" Is that, that babies Mother? did they die together? how did they die?" I realized these types of experiences in a child's life, shape who they are and what they might become. I felt honored that I could see that part of life, as it happened.
It was an experience I will cherish forever. Take those days of travel filled with kids, as a wonderous trip back into the times of wonder. You can go back, and with the knowledge of what it really all might mean.
Living as a local can be an enlightening series of events that make your journals come to life.