Cybertouring museums

THE purpose of museums, states the UK based Museums Association, is to allow people to explore collections for inspiration, learning and enjoyment. They are institutions that collect, safeguard and make artefacts and specimens accessible. With school in full swing and plane ticket prices soaring, checking out museums abroad is not an easy matter. But thanks to the Net, you can now choose to take cybertours. UK's COMPASS. features around 5,000 objects from a huge range of periods and cultures. Among the highlights are The- the black basalt tablet bearing inscriptions in various languages that finally allowed historians to translate Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, sections of the Parthenon, the temple built to Athena by the Ancient Greeks 2,500 years ago, and relics from Sutton Hoo, a burial mound from seventhcentury Anglo-Saxon that shed much light on early British history. Each artefact comes with an article describing its significance, a description of its physical properties, and linked thumbnails to related parts of the exhibit. Navigation in this site is simple. If you are looking for something in particular, there is a keyword search window. In addition, there is a dropdown menu listing about 50 of the most popular objects in the collection, and a second menu that allows visitors to look for objects by description, for instance, Chinese jade, Islamic metalwork and Svres Rosetta Stone Arabic porcelain. Younger visitors should start with the children's Compass where Alfred the Lion conducts tours: Ancient Egyptian animal mummies, the history of time measuring machines, the buried treasures of Britain, the story of the Trojan war and more. AUSTRALIA'S AMOL. Thanks to the Australian Museums and Galleries Online at, a project that brings together all Australian museums under one roof, you can see the best of what's on offer Down Under. The easiest way to navigate the site is to click on Site Map. If you plan to browse, look under Australian Tales and Stories from Collecting Institutions where some of the best exhibitions are gathered. Displays showcase Australian fossil hunters, fish biodiversity and more. Along the same lines, try the Australian University Museums Online at. US SMITHSONIAN. The Smithsonian Institute is an organisation consisting of 15 museums and eight research centres all over the United States. Sponsored by taxpayers and private individuals, the Smithsonian collection currently numbers over 142 million items. The best way to start your exploration is to click on Exhibitions. In addition, there is a Favourites list that comprises popular events such as the giant pandas Mei Xiang and Tian Tian and cub Tai Shan, which live at the US National Zoo; the Hope Diamond, which is the world's biggest blue diamond; and the 65 million-year-old Triceratops skeleton, which is on show at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. If you're in a hurry, check out the Explore and Lean channel that leads straight to Art & Design, History & Culture and Science & Technology exhibitions. Because each of these organisations is run by a different team and many exhibits have been specially designed to stand on their own, surfing from this point will take you to pages with quite a distinct look and feel. OTHER RESOURCES.