London Trip 16 - The British Museum

We were in line to enter the British Museum.  I, of course, had been there but Mr. B. and Murphy's Law had not been there before.

The Rosetta Stone from the reign of Ptolemy V welcomes visitors:

Lots of people crowded around it so it took awhile to get close enough to see it and try to get a decent picture with all the glare from the display case and lights,

The stone is an amazing piece of history and was the gateway to the translation of Egyptian Hieroglyphics.

We went further into the Egyptian rooms.

The room of Egyptian statues and Stelae never fails to inspire awe.

Statues of Pharaohs:

An impressive sacophagi:

 

A huge sculpture of a Scarab Beetle:

Of course, being Egypt,  there are statues of cats:

A statue of Rameses II:

The Stele of the Hellenistic King Ptolemy IX and Queen Cleopatra III (Note that the famous Cleopatra of Julius Caesar fame is Cleopatra VII). 

The pyramids were already ancient history when this stele was inscribed in 115 BC.

In fact, fewer years separate us from when this stele was written, than the years from the inscription of the stele to the building of the great pyramids. Yes, this stele, ancient as it is, is closer to the age of artificial intelligence than to the age of the pyramids.

It's an amazing room in the British Museum.  And, it was only the first one we visited.