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The Natural History Museum is a fascinating place to visit. Even before you enter the building, the external architecture is stunning. Once you are inside, the first thing that confronts you is an enormous dinosaur skeleton completely dominating the main hall. However, don’t be completely distracted by him; take a look around the surrounding exhibits, as these too are very interesting. The museum contains all the things you would expect a natural history museum to have, such as lots of ancient dinosaurs, including a T-rex who growls at you, along with many smaller articles, such as sea creatures, mammoths, birds, etc. You can basically see back to the very first origins of life and
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The Natural History Museum is a fascinating place to visit. Even before you enter the building, the external architecture is stunning.
Once you are inside, the first thing that confronts you is an enormous dinosaur skeleton completely dominating the main hall. However, don’t be completely distracted by him; take a look around the surrounding exhibits, as these too are very interesting.
The museum contains all the things you would expect a natural history museum to have, such as lots of ancient dinosaurs, including a T-rex who growls at you, along with many smaller articles, such as sea creatures, mammoths, birds, etc. You can basically see back to the very first origins of life and then up to the present day.
The museum is divided into areas, and one of these has large glass cabinets with stuffed birds and animals. Many of these are quite scruffy and old, but the museum states that they are not prepared to replace these animals, as the idea of stuffing animals is now very outdated and many people disapprove, so you have to take these exhibits at face value.
If you visit the sea section, you will see dolphins, sea animals, fish, birds, and an enormous blue whale hanging from the ceiling. The blue whale is the largest creature on the earth, and you can really get a sense of how huge these animals really are.
The museum also has sections devoted to the earth itself, which I found particularly interesting. Here you can see all sorts of stones and minerals, etc., that are found in the earth and see how they are formed over millions of years. You also get to learn about ice ages, earthquakes, volcanoes, tidal waves, and other natural phenomenon. You can stand on a metal stand that recreates the Kobe earthquake, which struck Japan several years ago; this is fun, although the real thing was not a laughing matter.
Other areas within the earth section show how tides happen and why, how valleys have been formed by glaciers, and many other fascinating facts. They really make the learning process interesting, and lots of the exhibits have interactive areas for kids of all ages.
One of the most recent exhibits is the Darwin Centre. Here you can walk down a long corridor and view 22 million glass bottles full of specimens. These include animals, birds, fish, insects, human body parts, and just about everything in between. If you are squeamish, then this is definitely not the place for you, but if you can bear to look, then it really is an amazing place.
I really think that if you are in London and have the time, you really should visit this museum, but make sure you allow plenty of time, as the place is huge, and although we were in there for a couple of hours, there were still areas we had to miss out on due to time constraints.
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