Visitors standing in the Parthenon gallery

Galleries 

Visiting the galleries

Opening times

Daily: 10.00–17.00
See full opening hours

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Explore more than 60 galleries at the British Museum from home.

Our gallery pages feature a range of exciting resources, including virtual tours with Google Street View, object highlights, timelines, family activities and facts.

Below you'll find a list of galleries on the lower floor, ground floor and upper floors, together with two galleries created especially for our online audience, Oceania and Prints and Drawings.

Please note that galleries in the Museum may be closed for maintenance, refurbishment or private events. All planned closures will be listed on the Visit page. Occasionally we may need to close galleries at short notice for safety reasons. We regret that in these cases we're not always able to alert the public in advance. 

Museum highlights

  • Statue of Ramesses II in the Egyptian sculpture gallery

    Egyptian sculpture gallery

    Travel back through 3,000 years of history via our timeline and gallery. Discover the Rosetta Stone, Statue of Ramesses II and more.
  • Rectangular in form with side flanges (largely missing). Background surface decorated with stylised quatrefoil (river leaf) patterns and stippling. Rosettes in each corner

    Africa

    The Sainsbury Africa Galleries reveal the extraordinary cultural, artistic and historical diversity and complexity of the continent.
  • Visitor looking at a marble bust in Room 70

    Roman Empire

    The objects in Room 70 illustrate the rise of Rome from a small town to an imperial capital.
    Visit Room 70

Lower floor

Wooden figure, focus on face with closed eyes and mouth.

Africa

Room 25 (The Sainsbury Galleries)

Visit Room 25

Ground floor

image of marble statue of a discus thrower

Enlightenment

Room 1

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Yellow vase with narrow neck, decoration in blue.

Collecting the world

Room 2

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Holy Thorn reliquary gold and jewels

The Waddesdon Bequest

Room 2a (funded by The Rothschild Foundation)
 

Visit Room 2a
Head and upper body of pink/grey granite monumental statue of Ramesses II.

Egyptian sculpture

Room 4

Visit Room 4
Statue of a winged lion from the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II

Assyrian sculpture and Balawat Gates

Room 6a

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Stone panel from the North-West Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, Assyria, 883-859 BC.

Assyria: Nimrud

Rooms 7–8 

Visit Rooms 7–8
Frieze with drawings on it

Assyria: Nineveh

Room 9

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Large relief with men pulling a horse

Assyria: Lion hunts, Siege of Lachish and Khorsabad

Room 10

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Gold goblet

Greece: Minoans and Mycenaeans

Room 12 (The Arthur I Fleischman Gallery)

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Greek wine jar depicting Achilles defeating Penthesilea, the Amazon Queen.

Greece 1050–520 BC

Room 13

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Greek vase depicting black-figured neck-amphora, signed by the potter Andokides.

Greek vases

Room 14

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Large Greek relief panel featuring a female-headed bird

Athens and Lycia

Room 15

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The Bassai Sculptures, the Phigaleian Frieze, Classical Greek

Greece: Bassai sculptures

Room 16

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Visitors in Room 17 by the Nereid Monument

Nereid Monument

Room 17

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Marble sculpture of horses head from parthenon

Greece: Parthenon

Room 18

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Marble block from the west frieze of the Temple of Athena Nike

Greece: Athens

Room 19
 

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Marble head of a youthful god: the 'Aberdeen Head', Classical Greek, 325-280 BC

Greeks and Lycians 400–325 BC

Room 20
 

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Horse head made from marble

Mausoleum of Halikarnassos

Room 21

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Marble statue of Demeter seated on a throne, Greek, carved around 350 BC.

The world of Alexander

Room 22

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Marble relief featuring a boy and horse.

Greek and Roman sculpture

Room 23

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Large human figure made of stone.

Living and Dying

Room 24 (The Wellcome Trust Gallery)

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Snow sled brown in colour.

North America

Room 26

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Image of a turquoise mosaic covered serpent with two heads

Mexico

Room 27

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Colossal marble statue of a lion in the Great Court.

Great Court

Great Court

The Great Court
Frieze with figure of a man and a lion

East stairs

East stairs

Visit the East stairs

Upper floors

4 humans 1 horse 1 camel all figures are shades of white, brown and green.

China and South Asia

Room 33 (The Sir Joseph Hotung Gallery)

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Dome-slab carved in limestone with the Great Departure, Prince Siddhartha's horse Kanthaka with empty saddle leaving the palace via an elaborate torana (gate)

India: Amaravati

Room 33a (The Asahi Shimbun Gallery)

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A jade brush pot decorated with nature motifs

Chinese jade

Room 33b (The Selwyn and Ellie Alleyne Gallery)

Visit Room 33b
Cassiobury Park turret clock

Clocks and watches

Rooms 38–39 (The Sir Harry and Lady Djanogly Gallery)

Visit Rooms 38–39
Seven white chess pieces

Medieval Europe, 1050–1500

Room 40 (The Sir Paul and Lady Ruddock Gallery)

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Sutton hoo helmet

Sutton Hoo and Europe, AD 300–1100

Room 41 (The Sir Paul and Lady Ruddock Gallery)

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Jade terrapin on blue background

The Islamic world

Rooms 42–43 (The Albukhary Foundation Gallery)

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Large blue and yellow decorated vase.

Europe 1400–1800

Room 46
 

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Vase made of pale blue jasper ware with applied white reliefs

Europe 1800–1900

Room 47

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Yellow and black squared mantelpiece clock

Europe 1900 to the present

Room 48

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The Great dish from the Mildenhall Treasure, a large concave silver platter with beaded rim (135 beads in total) on a circular vertical foot-ring positioned exactly one-third in from the rim.

Roman Britain

Room 49 (The Weston Gallery)

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a Golden round torc with circle gold balls at each end

Britain and Europe 800 BC–AD 43

Room 50

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A gold cape to be placed through head and sit on shoulders.

Europe and Middle East 10,000–800 BC

Room 51 (The Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Gallery)

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Gold armlet with two dragon looking figures attached.

Ancient Iran

Room 52 (The Rahim Irvani Gallery)

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Ancient Arabian calcite incense burner showing a camel rider

Ancient South Arabia

Room 53

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Ivory figure of a griffin-headed demon, Anatolia

Anatolia and Urartu, 7000–300 BC

Room 54

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Map of the World, Mesopotamia, 700-500 BC.

Mesopotamia, 1500–539 BC

Room 55

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Mesopotamian sculpture of queen of the night woman with wings

Mesopotamia, 6000–1500 BC

Room 56

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Small white statue of male figure sitting down

Ancient Levant

Rooms 57–59

Visit  Rooms 57–59
scene of man hunting egyptian painting

Egyptian life and death: the tomb-chapel of Nebamun

Room 61 (The Michael Cohen Gallery)

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A gold decorated coffin in the shape of a human.

Egyptian death and afterlife: mummies

Rooms 62–63 (The Roxie Walker Galleries)

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Granite statue of Ankhwa, one hand on leg the other holding a tool.

Early Egypt

Room 64

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Lying down sphinx, human head light brown.

Sudan, Egypt and Nubia

Room 65

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Oil painting on cotton cloth, depicting the a battle scene.

Ethiopia and Coptic Egypt

Room 66

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White porcelain 'moon jar', Choson dynasty, Korea, 17-18th Century AD.

Korea

Room 67 (The Korea Foundation Gallery)

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A penny with the words "votes for women" defaced across the Kings head.

Money

Room 68

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Bronze gladiator's helmet

Greek and Roman life

Room 69

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portland vase white relief figures on a black background

Roman Empire

Room 70 (The Wolfson Gallery)

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Painted sarcophagus of Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa, Etruscan, 150-140 BC.

Etruscan world

Room 71

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Red Polished Ware figurine cradling a child, Cypriot, 1975-1850 BC

Ancient Cyprus

Room 72 (The A.G. Leventis Gallery)

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Gold libation bowl (phiale) with six bulls around 600 BC, Western Greek.

Greeks in Italy

Room 73

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A scene of shepherds and animals, and a woman on a horse, depicted in red-brown oil paint.

Prints and drawings displays

Rooms 90 and 90a

Visit Rooms 90 and 90a
Two red, white, blue and gold decorated mantelpiece elephants figures.

Japan

Rooms 92–94 (The Mitsubishi Corporation Japanese Galleries)

Visit Rooms 92–94
Two identical porcelain vases with blue details including dragon.

Chinese Ceramics – Sir Percival David Collection

Room 95 (The Sir Joseph Hotung Centre for Ceramic Studies)

Visit Room 95

Virtual galleries

Red mask made from fibre glass, polyester resin, ply and balsar wood and bamboo,

Oceania

Virtual gallery

Explore the Oceania collection
Drawing of boats sailing on rough seas

Prints and drawings

Virtual gallery

Explore the Prints and drawings collection

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