British Museum
The room where a dead language got its voice back — and you walk in for free.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk London offline.
The world's first public national museum (1753), free to enter — home to the Rosetta Stone that cracked hieroglyphs, the Parthenon sculptures (Elgin Marbles) in the Duveen Gallery, and 140 mummies and coffins, the largest collection outside Cairo.
What to look for
- The Great Court roof: 1,656 uniquely shaped glass panes, no two alike.
- In Room 4, the Rosetta Stone (196 BC) — the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs.
- The circular Reading Room, a cast-iron dome 140 ft (43 m) across, marooned in the middle of the courtyard.
Free entry — only loan exhibitions require a ticket.
British Museum is one of 40 sights worth the detour in London, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the London pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in London
- Buckingham PalaceThe balcony where a whole country turns up to watch a family wave — with 775 rooms behind it.
- Westminster AbbeyNearly every English monarch since 1066 has been crowned on the same worn patch of floor.
- Big BenThe clang in a thousand establishing shots comes from a cracked bell that's rung slightly off-key since 1859.
- Tower of LondonWilliam the Conqueror's keep turned royal prison, where two queens lost their heads and the Crown Jewels still sit under guard.
- Tower BridgeA Victorian drawbridge dressed as a Gothic castle, its roadway still splitting open for passing ships.
- Palace of WestminsterA working parliament whose rules, by tradition, still assume MPs might draw swords on each other.