In the Assyrian gallery: British Museum

the flux of civilisations and power; the fall of the lion.

the Assyrian rooms are my favourite in the British museum. It's hard to say why. The exquisite stonemasonry carvings is one. The historical context - the seat of civilisation - is another.

ROOM 9
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/BM;_RM7_-_ANE,_Nimrud_Palace_Reliefs_1_Northwest_Palace_of_Ashurnasirpal_II_(883-859_B.C)_~_Full_Elevation_&_Viewing_South.JPG
and ROOM 10 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/The_Royal_Lion_Hunt_(Room_10).JPG
are stunning.

Also, they are much quieter than other places! The monumental Egyptian sculptures attract monumental hordes. The Greek & Roman galleries, being the most exquisite European relics, attract many Europeans.

King Ashurbanipal,(668-627 BC) is shown at a favourite indulgence, the lionhunt.
It is worth noting the Asiatic Lion (P.l.persica), once to be found throughout India, the Middle East and Southern Asia, is today, only to be found in the Gir Forest National Park in Gujarat, northwest India. (1stpic)
these palace wall carvings are from Nineveh, which is in present day northern Iraq, near the city of Mosul, home to to a majority Sunni Arab population and ethnically diverse minority which includes Kurds (Yezidi and Sunni) and Assyrian christians.

an informative take on the plunder taken from Iraqi museums during the transition of power there in recent years can be had at; http://www.elginism.com/20050724/170/

In the ancient Greek gallery: British Museum.

Probably, my favourite museum. And a favourite for art students.
The first 2 pics show a Caryatid, a type of column portrayed as a female figure.
This is one of six figures from the the Erechtheion on the Acropolis, Athens, removed by Lord Elgin in the early 1800s. The other five figures remained in Greece and are in the Acropolis Museum.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Porch_of_Maidens.jpg
there remains much controversy over ownership of the what are known as the Elgin marbles, part of which can be seen in the last pic above.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgin_Marbles
the two middle pics show a sculpture of Venus, just outside the greek rooms.
Aphrodite (Greek) and Venus (Roman) were approximate equivalents.