the british museum

not for the first time in my life i went to the british museum, where unfortunately i didn't manage to stay for a long time as i was completely upset by the excibits. i tried to understand why it's called "british" museum but couldn't fidure it out. can anyone explain? most of the excibits in there are Roman, Egyptian and Greek...

Of course one of the main reasons for me to be upset is the well known Elgin marbles. These are pieces of the parthenon which were taken away from Athens in the beginning of the 19th century, and though they have been claimed back, i don't believe they will ever be returned. they are, among a lot of other treasures displayed in this museum, a main attraction. and i guess this way they will remain.

At the time (1806) they were taken away from the Parthenon with the claim that they will be destroyed if they stay at their original location. So, Lord Elgin, who was saving the world at the time, decided without any personal benefit to remove the marbles and courier them to the UK. how cool is that?

what is lovely is also the fact that they remain in the british museum under the claim that they are being preserved better. what i saw in this museum is visitors actually touching the marbles, and not only them but also egyptian treasures which have survived for more than 3,500 years. there goes the preservation/maintenance argument as well.

anyway it's definitely worth a visit if you value the ancient civilisation of this planet and a few useful conclusions of how the world moves today.

Socrates wondering what he's doing in london.
Inscription explaining how the marbles got to the british museum.
Do these things really belong to london?