Today two of the blogs that I follow had pictures from the British Museum in their posts.

Ferrell Jenkins had a picture of the Monument from Xanathos and The Pietist Schoolman had a picture of an Egyptian statue.

These two pictures had me thinking about one of my favorite pictures that I took at the British Museum.

I really like this relief of Tiglath-pilesar III, also know as Pul, who was the King of Assyria during the reign of Menahem and Azariah.

Pul the king of Assyria came against the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that he might help him to confirm his hold on the royal power. (II Kings 15:19, ESV)

Other than the really cool beard, what I like about this picture is that it looks like he is wearing a watch :-). What brand do you think he would pick?

Here was my view as I walked into the entrance of the British Museum grounds. The South pediment with statues designed by Sir Richard Westmacott. The entrance to a wonderful experience as I walked through time exploring many different cultures.

One of my favorite places within the museum was as I stood at the entrance of what was at one time the British Library Reading Room.

The British Library now has a separate building, but the British Museum still has a large collection of books and is still in need of the large reading room. I could spend days in this room alone. Of course, this picture can only give a small sense of what it is like to stand beneath the large dome and look around this room. The room has a diameter of 140 feet and had 25 miles of shelves when it was used as the reading room for the British Library.

I visited the British Museum in 2006 and hopefully will visit it again someday. I already am making a mental list of specific things I want to see and also plan on giving myself more time to visit than I had the last time.

Steven