London Trip 18: What Is The Capital Of Assyria?

If you don't know and get asked by the Bridge Keeper, it is Assur, at least it was until 879 BC, when it was moved to Nimrud, then it was moved to Dūr Šarrukīn and thence to Nineveh, which remained the capital until the Assyrian empire fell to the Babylonians/Medes in 612 BC, so any of those should suffice to let you cross.

The Mespotamian collection is rather impressive at the British Museum.

 Two colossal statues of winged lions with human heads that used to stand at the entrance to the royal palace of King Ashurnasirpal  II (883-859 BC) in Nimrud

The Museum in its Assyrian exhibit has a display containing the world's first known library.  The Library of Ashurbanipal, King of the Neo-Assyrian Empire:

 Clay tablets, with many still in their clay envelopes, as they would have been at the time. The envelope both kept the tablet secure from being read by the unauthorized, and also had a label describing what was on the tablet within. The library contains many tablets works, including an archive  of  royal communications including one demanding that rare tablets to be sent to the library.

Quite cool.

The Assyrians were less famous for being librarians than their fame, if not infamy, for the warfare that led them to expand and control their empire, and their extremely brutal treatment of all who resisted them.

An Assyrian carving showing an attack:

The next carving shows them removing enemy deities from a captured city while they sack it:

This carving shows an arms-bearer of Tiglath-Pileser III

An Assyrian iron helmet from the era is also on display:

The Assyrian exhibit at the British Museum is extensive and quite impressive to see. Just standing beside one of the huge lions gives you quite an appreciation for the grandeur of this long-ago empire that at its height dominated much of the Middle East.

London Trip 17: You Can Do Numerous Successful Commercial Transactions With No Recognition

But, you get caught shipping lousy quality copper, and your name endures forever:

Yes, that's the tablet that has the complaint about Ea Nasir - right there in clay and cuneiform, inscribed in 1750 BC.  Ea Nasir was a merchant that helped put the mess in Mesopotamia.

Located in the British Museum in Room G56, display case 24, if you're looking to go see it in person.

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.

London Trip 15 - The Morning After Stonehenge

The next day in London, Mr B. and I got up, met a the hotel cafe to get caffeinated with some fine Earl Grey Tea and coffee, and then grabbed a good breakfast across from the Royal Courts of Justice:

We then started heading towards our destination.

First we wandered through the grounds of Somerset House:

 

It's a rather fancy place.

Continuing on our way we passed by King's College

The inscription above the columns states:  "To The Friendship of English Speaking Peoples."

The college has banners up honoring some of their significant graduates, including one of Abby's heroes:

Quite neat.

We then got in line to enter the next place of interest, and Murphy's Law arrived soon thereafter.

London Trip 14 - To Salisbury Plain

Mr, B. and I got up early and took the tube to Victoria Station and then walked to Victoria Coach Station where tour and travel buses awaited their passengers.

Lots of people taking buses to all around for tours and travel around England, and France.

In the station not just people but also pigeons roamed around not particularly concerned with the people all around them.

We got to our bus:

And we headed out for a long trip to Salisbury Plain.

The tour included the cost of the ride and admission for when we arrived.

A couple hour drive and we reached our destination, got our wristbands, stood in line for the shuttle and then walked along a path until we saw:

Stonehenge!

The pictures don't do it justice and it's far more impressive in present and is bigger than you thought it would be before you see it in person:

The stone blocks are impressively imposing and it's rather amazing how neolithic peoples built this monument. 

This is the Heel Stone, one of the unworked outer stones.  it weighs 40 tons:

The stones at Stonehenge are both Sarsen Stones that are local, and bluestones that were brought in from hundreds of miles away in Wales.

The path takes you all around the outside of the standing inner circle so you can see the monument from every angle.

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An artist was inspired to do a painting of Stonehenge:

He was doing a rather impressive job.

A raven decided to land on one of the sarsen stones, and stayed on it the entire time we were there, surveying all that was beneath it.

Around Stonehenge are multiple burial mounds that dot the landscape.

Easy to pick out once you know what you are looking for in the topography. The site seems to have been a popular one for neolithic burials as the mounds are all around outside of Stonehenge.

In addition to Stonehenge itself, there's a visitors center that goes over the history of the area/

As part of the center there is a reconstruction of a neolithic village which is interesting to walk through and see the construction techniques.

 

There's also a display showing how the stones would have been moved into position:

 

Inside the visitor center there's a nice display that goes over the history of the  monument itself.

And what it looked like in its heyday of 2200 BC:

And compared to today:

We then said goodbye to Stonehenge and began the 2 hour drive back to London.

While it didn't make the cut to be declared one of the  New 7 Wonders of the World, it likely should have done. Stonehenge is well, well, worth the trip out to see it and it is highly recommended to see for yourself.

London Trip 13 - Marching Round The Squares

August 11 was a more casual day.

It started with a proper Full English Breakfast:

Suitably provisioned, we hit Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, and Covent Garden.

We saw the monument to Edith Cavell, an English nurse that treated both sides in Belgium and helped Allied soldiers escape form German-occupied Belgiu,m. She was shot at dawn by the Germans in World War One.

She's a relative of current Oakland County Commissioner Charlie Cavell.  I've met him in person and he's a nice guy.  While he's a Democrat who I disagree with on a lot of things, his beliefs in gun control among them, he's still a very pleasant person to chat with, and he has yet been corrupted as a politician and is still quite the idealist.  While I don't agree with him on all his ideas and ideals, he's a rather likeable person and does listen to opposing views, so there's that.

Leicester square is a very artsy area with many theaters, shops and dining facilities around.

It also is home to London's Chinatown.

 

More on that later. 

A very Paddington bus made the rounds.

A quite cute double-decker that was very cheerfully decked out.

Libations were required during our journey, so we stopped by for some ale at The Sherlock Holmes Pub, which was doing brisk business on such a nice day.

The pub's Sherlock Holmes ale hit the spot nicely. We ended up chatting with a couple more Australian tourists and enjoyed sitting outside across the street from the pub.

Covent Garden has lots of shops that are nice to walk around. So, some shopping was done.

It was a very good day. Lots of walking and going places, checking out shops, and seeing the city.

We would, on the next day, have to get up for an early day to go farther from London to see a most significant site.

London Trip 12 - HMS Belfast

After thoroughly enjoying our time at Churchill's War Room, we started walking towards another Imperial War Museum - HMS Belfast.

There Mr. B and I met up with Lagniappe's Keeper and toured the ship.

HMS Belfast is a Town-class light cruiser, that fought in World War 2 and the Korean War.

We boarded and passed by the ship's bell:

HMS Belfast's main firepower comes from twelve six-inch guns arrayed in four triple turrets with a range of 14 miles.

It's rather cramped inside those turrets.

 

The six-inch guns have an interesting ammunition hoisting mechanism below decks in the Shell Rooms that got ammunition to the guns quickly:

HMS Belfast fired over 4,000 shells in support of the D-Day invasion on Gold Beach and as the troops pushed inland.

 The ship also mounts 12 4-inch guns, 40 mm antiaircraft guns and pom-pom guns as well as torpedoes.

There's everything on board a crew might need at sea.

From a heavily-stocked machine shop:

Galleys for food preparation and a bakery:

 

Damage Control Lockers

 

Sick Bay:

 

and more.  The engine room is rather impressive to visit and the ship is a fitting monument to the fighting British sailors of World War 2.

Moored alongside Belfast was a visitor to the United Kingdom, the Indian frigate INS Tabar, a Talwar-class frigate. 

 Built in Russia, she's now shown her mettle.

Yes those are two drone kill patches on the missile launcher, and a ship kill patch below the RBU-8000 rocket launcher.  INS Tabar shot down two Iranian-made Houthi-piloted Shahed drones. 

Jai Hind.

Inspired by the presence of the INS Tabar, the three of us headed off to have Indian food for dinner. 

It was quite delightful and flavorful.

We then walked across Tower Bridge and went on our way.

 

It had been a very interesting and informative day with many sights seen and over 22,000 steps taken.