Your first three hours at The Met

Start beneath the Great Hall’s three shallow domes. We’ll use this arrival space to get our bearings, then visit six works across the museum. The Temple of Dendur has a gateway and rooms of its own. Henry II’s armor fits stories and royal badges around a moving body. The Mangaaka Power Figure records agreements and disputes in its inserted metal. Canova’s Perseus holds a violent myth in a calm marble pose. Upstairs, Washington Crossing the Delaware fills a canvas with a crowded boat, and Van Gogh’s Wheat Field with Cypresses brings us close to individual strokes of paint. Allow roughly two and a quarter to three hours for the hall and six works, including looking, reading, walking and pauses. Security and admission take additional time. The route starts on Floor 1 and finishes on Floor 2.