Choose a first visit you can enjoy

The Great Court gives you a place to pause before choosing a gallery. The circular Reading Room is a useful landmark, with collection spaces reached around it and on other levels. Start by choosing what you want to spend time with, rather than counting the rooms you might pass through. The Museum brings objects from many places and periods into one institution. A visit can compare their materials, uses and journeys. Royal sculpture, a private letter and a burial object ask for different kinds of attention. A few connected examples will give you more to remember than a hurried attempt to reach every famous name.