Top draws at London’s (free) British Museum Steve McKennaThe West AustralianSun, 15 June 2025 9:10AM
You’d fear there’d be no escaping the hordes at the British Museum, which once again has been revealed as the UK’s most visited attraction (this and 15 of the top 20 sights are in London).
Free to enter, the museum maintained prime position with 6.4 million visitors in 2024, an 11 per cent year-on-year increase from 2023 and even higher than its pre-pandemic 2019 figure.
Expect a fair chunk of the crowds to be clustered around the museum’s ancient Egyptian treasures, the centrepiece of which is the Rosetta Stone, whose discovery in 1799 allowed researchers to crack some of the hieroglyphic mysteries of one of earth’s most enthralling civilisations.
Yet there are numerous other galleries to discover at this London landmark. Stocked with incredible finds, these rooms nevertheless tend to attract slightly fewer people.
ASSYRIAN ACES
Visitors’ jaws tend to drop when greeted by the two colossal winged human-headed lions that soar in the Assyrian galleries (rooms 6-10). Made of gypsum in the late 9th century BC, and weighing about 16 tonnes each, these mythological guardians flanked an entrance to the royal palace of King Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrud, a thriving city in ancient Assyria (modern-day northern Iraq). Other relics here include a huge beast that stood by the Temple of Ishtar, a goddess of war, and fragments and replicas of massive bronze gates from Balawat, another Assyrian archaeological site.
HALIKARNASSOS HIGHS
Unless you’re a giant, you’ll also be dwarfed by the robed marble statues in room 21. Towering almost 2.7m in height, they’re two of the gobsmacking exhibits in the museum’s Mausoleum of Halikarnassos. Regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, this elaborate 40m-high tomb for King Maussollos of Karia, south-west Turkey, dates from about 350BC. Later destroyed by earthquakes, its ruins still scatter the vibrant coastal resort of Bodrum, while some of the mausoleum’s most intact remains are displayed here at the museum. Rivalling the free-standing statues (of Maussollos and queen Artemisia) for wow factor is a chunk of the vast four-horse marble chariot that once crowned the stepped pyramid on the tomb’s roof. You’ll also see sculpted reliefs that chart episodes from the king’s royal court and his hopes for the afterlife.
SOUTH ASIAN SPLENDOURS
Head to room 33 – the Sir Joseph Hotung Gallery – for some of the museum’s finest exhibits from Asia. Stretching 115m, and reopened by the late Queen Elizabeth II after a revamp in 2017, it’s the longest gallery in the entire museum. While one half flaunts priceless jade, lacquer and ceramic artefacts stretching across 7000 years of Chinese history, including from its imperial dynasties, the other half channels exotic (and erotic) items from South Asia. Tantric sculptures are displayed alongside items from Indus and Mughal civilisations and statues of gods and goddesses, including Shiva and Tara. Sandstone Buddhas, commemorative postage stamps from Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, and paintings by Calcutta-born polymath Rabindranath Tagore – who won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 – also bless this bewitching gallery.
A BIT OF BRIT
Roaming most of the galleries here, you might think the British Museum is a misnomer for this place. Perhaps the World Museum would be more appropriate (more than two million years of global human history and culture are explored here). But there is a more domestic flavour at least between rooms 41 and 50, where you’ll find Bronze Age, ancient Roman and Viking hoards unearthed on the British Isles as well as relics from the Norman and Tudor eras. Beyond the gaze-worthy coins, pottery and jewellery are standout objects like the helmet from the Anglo-Saxon ship burial discovered at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, one of most important moments in British archaeology when it was dug up on the eve of World War II. Another object that stirs the imagination is the bronze head bust of Hadrian, Roman emperor from AD117-138. Believed to have once topped a statue that stood in a public space in Roman-ruled Londinium, it was plucked from the River Thames near London Bridge.
UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT
The British Museum is the kind of place you could (and probably should) visit every time you’re in London, because as well as its mind blowing permanent collection, it also stages a mix of free and paid-for temporary exhibitions with themes that may pique your interest. From the Silk Road to the Incas, Islamic empires to the pharaohs, every region and epoch comes under the museum’s spotlight at some point. Current exhibitions showcase the 19th century art of Utagawa Hiroshige, an icon of Edo-era Japan, and the heritage of traditional Afghan rugs (and how they’re woven with highs and lows of the nation’s knotted history). A new exhibition, Ancient India: Living Traditions, begins on May 22 and will run until October 19. Check the museum’s website closer to your visit to see what else is on. You may need to book tickets and a time slot for the most popular exhibitions.
fact file
+ Apart from December 24-26, The British Museum is open daily 10am to 5pm (and until 8.30pm on Fridays). For more information, see britishmuseum.org
+ To help plan a trip to Britain, see visitbritain.com
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