Explore Bloomsbury's British Museum, home to the Elgin Marbles and the Rosetta Stone, in London

The British Museum contains some of the greatest treasures of the world. Consider the Elgin Marbles. Named for the British ambassador who collected them, they are some of the finest statuary of the ancient Greek world. Their return has long been sought by the Greek government. The Rosetta Stone, from Egypt, was key to deciphering the ancient hieroglyphic language. Relics from ancient Assyria, Rome, and China add to the museum’s collections.

The British Museum’s library attracted remarkable guests over its life. Karl Marx researched and drafted Das Kapital here. Over 60 years later, Virgina Woolf visited regularly. She and other nearby Bloomsbury residents--among them E.M. Forster and John Maynard Keynes--comprised the salon known as the Bloomsbury Group. This group of writers, artists, philosophers and economists contributed substantially to the modern development of English arts and letters.