WORLD TOP 10 MUSEUM For most travellers, the best way to absorb and understand a country, its culture,

history and people is to visit a prominent museum. Nowadays, museums have become much more fascinating because of technology and interactive features, as well as the buildings they are housed in. Based on visitor surveys, here is a list of the worlds best museums and what they offer: The Louvre, Paris Most people associate this stunning museum with just one paintingMona Lisa by Italian Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci. This former palace of a series of French emperors, before it was converted to a museum, is widely considered to be the most famous in the world, and with good reason. Nearly 35,000 objects from pre-history to the 21st century are showcased over an area of 60,600 sq m and it attracts an average of eight million visitors a year. There are thousands of other treasures depicting human civilisation, from Egypt, Asia, ancient Greece and Rome, apart from historic paintings and sculptures by artists like da Vinci and Rembrandt. After a modernisation project in the 1990s, there is an added attraction, the contemporary glass pyramid dominating the central plaza. The Hermitage, St Petersburg St Petersburg is where the G20 summit is taking place and its unlikely that the leaders will get a chance to visit the Hermitage, which is a pity, since it is rated as one of the top museums in the world with the largest-ever collection of paintings. The building housing the approximately three million exhibits is imposing enough on its own and has a history in keeping with its stature. It is one of the oldest museums in the world, and was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great. In fact, despite Russias isolation from the great art centres of Europe, the Hermitage has managed to acquire paintings and objects spanning the history of the world from the Stone Age to present times. The must-see sections are the Golden Rooms with their glittering exhibits, most notably the famous Faberge Eggs, and the Western European Art section, the largest in the world, which covers French, English, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, German and Flemish art. The British Museum, London The most celebrated object on display is the Elgin Marbles that once decorated the Parthenon in Athens, but, really, there are literally millions of works of art that make up one of the worlds great collections. Its galleries are divided into Egypt (the largest collection of ancient Egyptian material outside Cairo), Greece, Roman, Asia, Africa and medieval Europe, tracing human history and culture. Founded in 1753, its stunning collection of ancient art from all parts of the world (it has some seven million artifacts, four million of which are on display at any one time), attracts more than six million visitors each year. Apart from the collection itself, a must-see is the domed grandeur of the Reading Room, recently restored, which now houses a modern information centre. The Egyptian Museum, Cairo Egypt is a repository of ancient wonders and this museum houses the most complete collection of Egyptian art in the world. Among the thousands of treasures are the famous artifacts from King Tutankhamuns tomb. Many of Egypts ancient artifacts were stolen and archeological sites plundered, and in response, the Egyptian government established the Service des Antiques de lEgypte to preserve and exhibit its ancient treasures. In 1900, the Egyptian Museum, as we know it today, was built and now houses over 1,20,000 objects from the pre-historic era to the Greco-Roman period, including ancient sculptures of the Sphinx. The Mummy Room is the most popular, where artifacts from the tombs of Pharaohs, kings and royal families, including Tutankhamun, are on display. Uffizi, Florence

Just to see Botticellis Birth of Venus makes this visit worthwhile, but there are so many more masterpieces to see in this 16th-century palace, including other marvellous Renaissance sculptures and famous masterworks of the Renaissance. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation estimates that 60% of the worlds most popular artworks are in Italy, with over half of them located in Florence. The museum stuns visitors with one of the finest collections of paintings and sculptures in the world, including works by Renaissance masters like da Vinci, Raphael and others. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The Met, as it is popularly known, has accumulated some two million works of art from across the world, from pre-history to the modern era, ranging from Islamic, Egyptian, Greek and Indian art to European paintings. The galleries contain fascinating exhibitions and displays ranging from engravings (including Adam and Eve, a historic piece) to collections of ancient arms and armour, as well as musical instruments and garments. The Indian section is quite expansive and the collection embraces miniature Mughal paintings to ancient artifacts, as well as shawls and musical instruments that have gone extinct. MoMA, New York Located in midtown Manhattan, The Museum of Modern Art, or MoMA, has been described as the worlds most influential in terms of its collection of modern art. It is also an invaluable source of material offering an overview of modern and contemporary art. The museums library and archives hold over 3,00,000 books and periodicals, as well as individual files on more than 70,000 artists. It has the best collection of modern masterpieces, including works by almost every famous western artist, from Van Gogh to Salvador Dali, Picasso, Monet, Cezanne and Jackson Pollock to name a few. The Vatican Museums, Rome St Peters Square and the Vatican are on every visitors agenda when in Rome, but the real treasures are to be found in a series of exhibition spaces filled with priceless works of art. The most famous is Michelangelos Sistine Chapel and his painting on the ceiling, but the Vatican Museums contain 22 separate collections, ranging from Etruscan and Egyptian art to maps and modern religious art. The must-see here are the Raphael Rooms and, of course, right outside the Sistine Chapel are Berninis spiral columns. The Prado, Madrid It may be dominated by Spanish masterpieces by Goya, El Greco and Velazquez (whose Las Meninas is the best-known work of the museum), but there are equally important sculptures and paintings, including the legendary The Three Graces by Rubens. Despite the fact that its collection is comparatively small, The Prado is one of the most respected museums in the world. National Archeology Museum, Athens It houses some of the most important artifacts from a variety of archeological locations around Greece from pre-history to late antiquity, and is considered one of the great museums of the world. Its famed collection includes a bronze Artemision Podeidon from the 5th century BC, along with the richest collection of artifacts from Greek antiquity worldwide. The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Everywhere you go in Amsterdam, there are references to the most famous Dutch painting, The Night Watch, by Rembrandt, including sculptures replicating the group of militia in public parks. Yet, that is only one of over one million exhibits that the Rijksmuseum houses. It is the largest collection of art and history in the

Netherlands and is internationally renowned for its paintings by 17th-century Dutch masters, including 20 other Rembrandts and other masterpieces of this period.