\paperw3360 \margr0\margl0\ATXph16380 \plain \fs20 \pard\tx3255\tx6525\tx9780\ATXts240\ATXbrdr0 \f1 \fs22 The British Museum houses an extraordinarily rich treasure spanning two
million years of world history and civilisation. It is essentially the national museum of archaeology and ethnology. There are large sections on prehistoric and Roman Britain, on Ancient Greece and Rome, on Oriental art and on Ancient Egypt. Apart fro
m Egyptian sculptures, mummies and jewellery, this latter section also boasts the famous Rosetta Stone, which provided the key to the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Another important attraction are the beautiful 7th century illuminated gospels produced on the is
land of Lindisfarne off the northeast coast of England, the cradle of Christianity in Britain during the 7th century. In 1881 the MuseumÆs natural history collection was moved to the new \b \cf4 \ATXht11891000 Natural History Museum\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 . T
he \b \cf4 \ATXht12401000 British Library\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 , once part of the same complex, is also gradually moving elsewhere; however, the vast domed Reading Room where Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi and George Bernard Shaw pursued their studies is still act
