We left the beautiful countryside behind and drove back to London. Matt made the drive safe and sound and was very happy to drop the car back off at the rental office. Then we just took the bus back to the airport, where we found the metro and rode up to our next hotel, which was probably our sketchiest hotel of the trip due to the surprise of not having a private bathroom. (The room itself was actually fine, but sharing a bathroom with strangers was less comfortable.) It was also cool that we were staying almost across the street from King's Cross Station and St. Pancras Station, both of which were amazing.
I chose the hotel, which was nice enough to keep our bags for us for many hours in their front room before we actually checked in, because it was less than a mile from the British Museum. The museum was one of the most anticipated parts of the trip for Pierce and me, and I think it was one of Zoe's favorite parts too. I've been reading about the British Museum for many years and it was absolutely amazing to get to see it.
When you go through the front door you find yourself in a big lobby, and then of course you go straight to the Egyptian wing on the ground floor, where the first thing you (and about 200 other people also right there) see is the Rosetta Stone.
We all stayed together to see the Egyptian wing because we were all most excited about it. It's amazing.
All these huge granite statues, and they are 3000-4000 years old.
Also paintings from tomb and temple walls, taken out to preserve them in the way British archaeologists did in the late 1800's and early 1900's.
I found the reliefs incredible - so much detail! All carved by hand. Some still had paint on them.
The Egyptian kingdoms lasted so many years that their later rulers could look back on ancient ruins of their own civilization and see what lasted and what didn't. Here's what lasts: granite. It made us think about our own mortality, I'll tell you that. Nothing lasts 4000 years, no matter what amazing things you might do, except granite.
And I guess sometimes you can even save paint for thousands of years if it's well hidden and unexposed for most of it. (But mostly - granite.)
There were a couple of huge stone sarcophaguses (sarcophagi?) with amazing hieroglyphs and pictures all over them.
It's really amazing to see the writing - we've seen it in pictures but it's just so cool to see that it's actually just like what's in our books. It must have taken forever to carve these.
I thought I'd gotten a picture of the female sphinx that made Zoe and I a little uncomfortable :) - maybe someone else got it, I'll have to check. But this is all I got from floor 1 of the Egyptian wing. It's hard to know what to take a picture of - there's so much!
As much as I loved the Egypt section, even more amazing to me is the Assyrian sculpture. The Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC) built a palace at Nimrud (now in northern Iraq) and there are huge amazing gypsum reliefs from the palace.
We also loved the lamassus.
Another really cool part is that all across these reliefs is text. The writing is AMAZING, it's crazy that we have it and we can read it. The king mostly is boasting about his conquests. It goes on and on and on. Here's a bit of it:
I am a King, I am a Lord, I am glorious, I am great, I am mighty, I have arisen, I am Chief, I am a Prince, I am a warrior. I am great and I am glorious, Assur-nasir-habal, a mighty King of Assyria, proclaimer of the Moon-god, worshipper of Anu, exalter of Yav, suppliant of the gods am I, servant unyielding, subduing the land of his foeman, a King mighty in battle, destroyer of cities and forests, Chief over opponents, King of the four regions, expeller of his foes, prostrating all his enemies, Prince of a multitude of lands of all Kings, Even of all, a Prince subduing those disobedient to him, who is ruling all the multitudes of men. These aspirations to the face of the great gods have gone up; on my destiny steadfastly have they determined; at the wishes of my heart and the uplifting of my hand, Istar, exalted Lady, hath favored me in my intentions, and to the conduct of (my) battles and warfare hath applied her heart. In those days I Assur-nasir-pal, glorious Prince, worshipper of the great gods the wishes of whose heart Bel will cause him to attain, and who has conquered all Kings who disobey him, and by his hand capturing his enemies, who in difficult places has beaten down assemblages of rebels; when Assur, mighty Lord, proclaimer of my name aggrandizer of my royalty over the Kings of the four regions, bountifully hath added his invincible power to the forces of my government, putting me in possession of lands, and mighty forests for exploration hath he given and urgently impelled me - by the might of Assur my Lord, perplexed paths, difficult mountains by the impetuosity of my hosts I traversed, and an equal there was not. In the beginning of my reign (and) in my first campaign when the Sun-god guider of the lands threw over me his beneficent protection on the throne of my dominion I firmly seated myself; a sceptre the dread of man into my hands I took; my chariots (and) armies I collected; rugged paths, difficult mountains, which for the passage of chariots and armies was not suited I passed, and to the land of Nairi I went: Libie, their capital city, the cities Zurra and Abuqu Arura Arubie, situated within the limits of the land of Aruni and Etini, fortified cities, I took, their fighting-men in numbers I slew; their spoil, their wealth, their cattle I spoiled; their soldiers were discouraged; they took possession of a difficult mountain, a mountain exceedingly difficult; after them I did not proceed, for it was a mountain ascending up like lofty points of iron, and the beautiful birds of heaven had not reached up into it: like nests of the young birds in the midst of the mountain their defence they placed, into which none of the Kings my fathers had ever penetrated: in three days successfully on one large mountain, his courage vanquished opposition: along the feet of that mountain I crept and hid: their nests, their tents, I broke up; 200 of their warriors with weapons I destroyed; their spoil in abundance like the young of sheep I carried off; their corpses like rubbish on the mountains I heaped up; their relics in tangled hollows of the mountains I consumed; their cities I overthrew, I demolished, in fire I burned
It goes on and on, most of it super gory.
I think this one is part of the lion hunt relief. Anyway I think this was my favorite part of the museum and I should have gone back to see more. There was just so much to see.
The downstairs galleries are full of the big stone things. Then there's a lot more Egyptian stuff on the first floor. Mummy cases, masks, all sorts of interesting things found in tombs and temples.
I think there were just a few unwrapped mummies. They're amazing, they don't look great but they look pretty good for how old they are. And there were a million other interesting things - again, I just didn't have an idea of what to try to photograph. It's probably better for me to just get a book about the British Museum and then I can get the history and the science along with the picture.
At Family School, Pierce and Zoe did one year's study about museums and some really nice artifacts from the British Museum specifically. Zoe did a report on a Japanese bronze mirror with cranes on it. It was very interesting for her. Here's what she studied: https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=770300&partId=1
That specific bronze mirror was not on display, but we went to the Japan gallery and saw these, which she thought was a pretty good substitute.
We walked around for hours and then went downstairs to eat some snacks. (We had thought we'd be able to kind of snack as we walked, but the museum is not set up for surreptitious eating.) The big room is beautiful, with this amazing glass ceiling.
From Easter Island, they have a moai taken from Orongo in 1868.
Pierce had studied this Aztec turquoise two-headed serpent.
These reliefs from Mexico look so much like what we've seen in Mexico on previous trips. I guess that makes sense. :)
Downstairs in the Africa gallery there were some great things like this collection of reliefs.
Back on the ground floor, the Greek galleries were another favorite of ours. This is the Nereid Monument, which is a sculptured tomb from Xanthos, the form of a Greek temple. It's just been moved to, you know, the British Museum.
And then, if you like Greek sculpture, well, they have a lot of the reliefs and sculptures from the Parthenon, which was a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena.
There was so much amazing, beautiful, Greek sculpture. Then upstairs was the smaller stuff - the pottery and a powerful lot of busts and a lot of other cool things.
I can't remember what all of this is - this must be Babylonian or Assyrian. There was a section with artifacts from Ancient Ur, Abrahamic times.
This is Augustus Caesar. Pierce and I think he looks so disappointed in us. My good camera had run out of battery by this time so I just have a phone shot - a good one with less reflection would be nice.
We especially liked this fun sculpture.
We decided that it would be nice if we had family busts - much longer lasting than photography! I hope Matt is about to get started on them. I think that this guy is Hadrian (but I should check with Pierce to be sure).
We looked around for more hours. Zoe and I stuck together, and Matt, Mattie, and Pierce went on their own pace. Pierce was determined to see *everything* on display. He went through at a pretty good pace and I think he did actually see all the exhibits. Then when he was done, we found him and we went back with us and showed us his favorites. He'd gone fast, but he also had obviously been paying attention because he had many interesting things to show and tell me. Anyway we enjoyed so many things, all through history around the world, until the museum closed.
Then we walked back to the hotel and on the way we found fish & chips actually sold in newsprint, which we'd been looking for all along. We got way too much and ate them in a park and it was delicious! Then we went to Kings Cross Station and saw platform 9 3/4, where they have a display and you can pay 15 pounds to have your picture taken with a trolley disappearing through the column, or like us, you can just look through the Harry Potter shop. We were worn out by that point and went back to our sketchy hotel for some rest. Mattie's fitbit says 16,196 steps - it felt like more for sure, but I think museums are hard because you're walking and just standing and looking.
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