please contact London Belly Dance if you have a suggestion for resources to include in this section

BRITISH MUSEUM (Bloomsbury WC1) - the vast collections in this wonderfully varied museum include extensive artifacts from ancient Egypt covering 3,000 years of pharaonic civilisation in the Nile Valley - from coffins & mummies to furniture & fine jewellery, & from magnificent statuary to papyrus texts of magical, medical & mathematical works & poetry - plus the key to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphs, the Rosetta Stone - FREE (except some special exhibitions)

HORNIMAN MUSEUM plus library & gardens (Forest Hill SE23) - this fascinating museum houses 350,000 artifacts in 3 main collections covering anthropology, natural history & musical instruments - includes mummies & coffins & objects from daily life in ancient Egypt!  "The Horniman, through its collections & related exhibitions & events, seeks to encourage a wider appreciation of the World, its peoples & their cultures, & its environments" - FREE (except some special exhibitions)

ISLAMIC MIDDLE EAST:  THE JAMEEL GALLERY -  now open at the V&A museum (South Kensington SW7), "an outstanding new home for the collection of over 400 items of ceramics, textiles, carpets, metalwork, glass & woodwork dating back over 1,000 years & covering areas from Spain in the west to Uzbekistan & Afghanistan in the east, taking in important centres of artistic production in the Arab lands, Turkey & Iran."

The PETRIE MUSEUM OF EGYPTIAN ARCHEOLOGY (right), part of University College London (Bloomsbury WC1), "houses an estimated 80,000 objects, making it one of the greatest collections of Egyptian & Sudanese archaology in the world.  It illustrates life in the Nile valley from pre-history through the time of the pharoahs, the Ptolemaic, Roman & Coptic periods to the Islamic period."  The collection includes a unique beadnet dress of a dancer from the pyramid age (about 2400 BC!).  Admission FREE - open 6 days a week 

SOAS (the School of African & Oriental Studies, University of London - Bloomsbury WC1) - "SOAS has an enviable reputation araound the globe for the calibre & quality of its courses, teaching & research."  The SOAS language centre provdes evening & weekend courses in a range of languages, & its music school (the largest world music school in Europe) hosts a series of concerts throughout the year together with a summer music school