Saturday Snapshot - Sydney Museum

Saturday Snapshot is a meme hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books.

The rules are simple:

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

As part of my Sydney Challenge (see Sydney tab above) I'm trying to visit (or revisit) as many Sydney landmarks as I can!
I've been wanting to check out the Alexander The Great 2000 Years of Treasures exhibition at the Australian Museum and last week I finally got there.

The exhibition was wonderful - I was particularly fascinated by the intricate detail in the cameo's, coins and necklaces (click on the link above if you want to see some of them).

I've loved Classical painted urns and pots ever since my Ancient History days in highschool. The ones on display here just blew my mind!

I know we have to have glass between us and I know they have to live in controlled climates to preserve them, but oh how I wish I could touch them.
Just to gently trace my finger over the lines of these ancient artists, to feel the texture of the clay and the glaze and to enjoy the heft and shape of the pot between my hands would be magical.

I hope this exhibition travels to a museum near you soon!

Sydney Museum was established in 1827 by Earl Bathurst and moved into it's current building opposite Hyde Park in 1849.

I love the old rooms with their spiral staircases, viewing platforms and aging display cases. There's something comforting about their familiarity.

The dinosaur and skeleton rooms are endlessly fascinating for young and old.

I also love the insects, birds, rocks and mineral rooms...but I refrained from taking a million photos of coloured rocks!

Years ago they used to have an evolution room which was one of my favourite places.

I used to spend hours in there reading, wondering, hypothesising.

But it seems to have evolved too.

Now they have a wonderful room exploring Indigenous culture.

There is a dance performance every Sunday (according to my Top 10), but I went on a Tuesday to avoid the weekend crowds.

 Most of the newer sections of the museum were built during the 1950's.

Below is a photo courtesy of the Powerhouse Archives of the Museum & Hyde Park in the early 1900's.

Hyde Park is now a wonderful mass of shade trees and the Museum boundaries stretch right the to the Willam street corner. This intersection is much busier today!!