About British Museum
It all began with the collection of a physician and naturalist, Hans Sloane, left to the nation for £20,000, far less than it was worth. Founded in 1753 and opened to the public in 1759, the museum now holds about 8 million objects, and it feels like a good share of human history walked these halls before you.
You enter through the Great Court, a courtyard opened in 2000 and covered by a glass-and-steel roof with 1,656 panels, each a different shape. From there, the classic route leads to the Rosetta Stone, the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs, and to the Parthenon sculptures, both long the subject of requests for return.
