Kent Alstad's Weblog - The British Museum

Monday, May 08, 2006

One of my favorite places in London that I could recall from my intial trip 20 years ago in 1986 was the British Museum. This beautiful building holds one of the finest collections of ancient Egyptian and Greek artifacts as well as a bunch of old British and European stuff. Like all British museums entry is free!

We were transported back in time to ancient Egypt.

Here is a photo of three sar·coph·a·gi or sar·coph·a·gus·es

A stone coffin, often inscribed or decorated with sculpture.

Then it was off to ancient Greece. This discus athelete has excellent form but he is just not getting an distance on his throws.

Here we see a minotaur in battle. Notice the broken leg on the minotaur. Denis also broke his leg the night we arrived in Latvia. Fortunately Denis's leg is heeling much faster.

Off to old England. Here we see a real life two handed sword. For those familiar with playing Dungeons and Dragons you will know this weapon well. We were all surprised how large this really was. It is as tall as me (Kent)

What is an Astrolabe?

The astrolabe is a very ancient astronomical computer for solving problems relating to time and the position of the Sun and stars in the sky. Several types of astrolabes have been made. By far the most popular type is the planispheric astrolabe, on which the celestial sphere is projected onto the plane of the equator. A typical old astrolabe was made of brass and was about 6 inches (15 cm) in diameter, although much larger and smaller ones were made. http://www.astrolabes.org/

5/8/2006 6:57:13 AM UTC | Comments [0] | Great Adventure 2006

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