The British Museum, founded in 1753, it is the oldest museum in the world.

The collection was started by the physician Sir Hans Sloane (1660 - 1753), who also responsible for helping set up the Chelsea Physic Garden. Sloane's 'cabinet of curiosities' was greatly increased over the years by gifts and purchases and the storage space soon became overwhelmed.

In 1847 Robert Smirke designed the new neo-classical building, with its grand colonnaded façade and spacious interior. The British Museum now displays antiquities from all over the world and is the most popular attraction in the capital.

The British Museum contains a vast collection of treasures spanning 2 million years of world history and civilization.

There are over 90 galleries (covering 2.5 miles), divided into specialised sections. The permanent displays include treasures from Eygpt, Greece, Rome and Western Asia. The museum's collection of Oriental art includes superb examples of Chinese, Indian and Islamic workmanship.

Other galleries display artifacts from prehistoric and Roman Britain and there is an important collection of medieval, Renaissance and modern objects.

The museum's Ethnography Collections have been returned from the Museum of Mankind and will be displayed in various locations within the building including the Sainsbury African Galleries which opened in 2001.

The British Museum's most important treasures include the Elgin Marbles, the Egyptian Mummies, the Rosetta Stone and the Mildenhall Treasures.

Until the late-20th century the building also housed the British Library. However, to mark the British Museum's 250th anniversary it was decided to transfer the British Library to a new site in the Euston Road.

When the library was re-located in 1997 the museum acquired 2 acres of new space in the vast quadrangle around the Reading Room. The museum was transformed with the creation of Sir Norman Foster's splendid 'Great Court', London's first glass-covered public square. The great undulating roof of glass and metal (which floods the new plaza with light but reflects the heat) has no visible signs of supports.

As well as restoring Robert Smirke's façades of the courtyard the southern portico, leading into the newly restored foyer, has been reinstated.

At the centre of the Great Court is the British Library's famous domed Round Reading Room.

This has been painstakingly restored to its original interior decoration. In this spectacularly beautiful room museum visitors can get a taste of the atmosphere that many famous readers, such as George Bernard Shaw and Karl Marx, found so agreeable.

The Reading Room now contains a public reference library and COMPASS, a multi-media system giving visitors access to the museum's collections.

As well as being a breathtaking open space the Great Court provides greatly improved access to the galleries. There are also several cafes and museum shops.