The best thing about having a friend training to be a blue badge tour guide is getting tours for free!! However everyone can check out of the British Museum for free, even if you don’t have your own tour guide!
We caught up with Alex on one of her Sunday training runs, meeting in the central court outside the impressive reading room.
Such a beautiful day – the patterns of light made by the roof were so pretty!
We started off in the Egyptian area, checking out the Rosetta Stone, which was the key to unlocking the translation of hieroglyphics, as it has the same text in different scripts (including the hieroglyphs).
I thought the best bit was the signs for Cat!:
Miaow!
We then moved on to check out some lion hunting in Phonencian times:
Lions being shot with bows & arrows by the gentry – preserved in stone
The king on his chariot with up his long bow, servants fending off attack with spears
It’s amazing how the detail on these reliefs has lasted.
We also visited the famous Elgin marbles to see the celebrations from the temple frieze in honour of the goddess Athena, before heading back to Eygpt to say hi to this dude:
Rameses the second – quite a hot body!
This statue was carved out of one 2 tonne block of granite – the technology to do this is astounding for the age – especially as those who removed it from its original site had to break it up to do so!
After our tour we headed back to the central court to grab coffee & cake. I’d recommend popping into the British Museum anytime you’re in the area – it’s free, dry and you can always find something to captivate you!
Find out more on their website here: http://www.britishmuseum.org/
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