The exhibits are spread out over three floors, each with a number of wings dedicated to a certain subject. Upon entering the museum you are faced with three huge dinosaur skeletons, the largest of which has a neck which rises high up towards the vaulted ceiling. In this room was what I assume was a copy of the recently (well, recently in Nov. 1994) disvcovered dinosaur egg complete with embryo). You pays your money to the (bored and sullen) girl at the cash [a donation, pay what you will basically], and enter the museum proper.
From here on you'll just get fleeting impressions. We spent three or four hours in the place, and we just managed to give things a cursory glance. If you are the type of person who just *has* to read everything, plan to spend a couple of days in the museum.
The first gallery we entered was dominated by the... the only word applicable here is "stuffed"... bodies of about a dozen elephants (including at least one baby) in the center of the room. The Natural History Museum has a large collection of stuffed animals from all over the world. The quality of the stuffing is vey high (most of the animals e.g. did not have those ugly glass eyes that most taxidermists insist on using to enhance the fact that these animals are dead), and the animals are placed in a "natural" looking display. These are complete with other animals, grass and plants, dung, and a background painted to blend nicely with the animals and plants. All very classy, although neither my wife or I could get over the fact that these animals had be "collected" (killed) just for these displays.
There are a number of galleries which are devoted to the history of various regions around the world, and specifically on their religions. Various (ofetn beautiful) artifacts are found in the glass displays, with brief and to-the-point explanations. ne that stick s in my mind is a small replica (about 6' high) of a Buddhist temple, complete with the shadowing of the staues in the back whcih is typical of these temples.
One room is devoted entirely to meteorites, which one weighing several tons dominating the room. There are a large number of smaller displays, complete with cross-cuts through the meteorites, but I found that the displays didn't hold my interest.
Right next to the meteorite room is the mineral room. This room is a must for anybody who has ever picked up a stone and thought it looked nice. Various minerals and gems are on display, including one display showing luminesince in various minerals. A large number of precious and semi-precious stones are displayed behind glass. Well worth the time to visit.
One exhibit that we were a bit surprised at was a display of the extinct ancestors of present-day mammals (or, at any rate, their fossils). While not as impressive as, say, a T-Rex skeleton, the rack on the ancestor of the present-day moose was still cool. Also, the teeth on your basic saber-toothed tiger are indeed impressive. Once again, worth checking out, but we only kinda cruised through the display.
The single most impressive sight in the museum is in the "aquatic life" section, where a full-sized replica of a female blue whale is suspended from the ceiling. The replica was made from a dead whale which washed up on a beach somewhere, and is the only way (short of seeing a live one) of gauging just how large these beasts are. Also in this display are a number of what must be the ugliest fish in the oceans, those buggers which live inb the darkest parts of the ocean. It's obvious taht there can be no light where these fish live, beacuse if any other fish saw them alive they'ed die on the spot.
One thing you'll have to live with while you're there is kids. Lots and lots of very loud kids. During the week the place is filled with elementry school kids on outings, along with a number of older art students drawing, well, pretty much anything. During the weekend tha place is (reputedly) filled with people dragging their kids somewhere educational on their days off. Just have to live with it.
One thing you'll just have to put up with is crowds. During weekdays the place is filled with elementary school kids on tours (very loud) and older art students drawing, well, most anything.