British Museum (The), London

Norman Foster’s Great Court, a circular indoor courtyard with a soaring, segmented glass roof, ushers you into the British Museum. At its center lies the former British Library reading room, a polished kernel, where Karl Marx, Oscar Wilde and Gandhi have studied. The museum collection consists of over eight million items, some of it controversial booty from the colonial era, most notably the Parthenon sculptures plucked from Athens by Lord Elgin in 1801, which the Greek government would rather like to see returned. Other treasures in this incredible array include the Egyptian collection, Assyrian carvings and the Rosetta stone. Free tours throughout the day plot a route through this Aladdin’s cave and ensure you won’t miss a royal secret in this top London attraction.

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