You may be surprised to learn that the first museum was built two and a half thousand years ago by the Babylonians in Mesopotamia.

We humans have always been fascinated by history: by artefacts, agriculture, art, and so on, as well as the natural world. Since then, many museums have existed, and at the current time there are literally thousands of museums all around the world.

These range from the huge history museums in capital cities such as London, New York, and Paris, right down to smaller, more homely museums in towns, villages, and even inside people’s own homes.

One man in the UK has turned his home into a Baked Bean Museum, as one example. In this case, the spirit of collecting has inspired the display of collected items, and this same spirit is true even of big museums such as the Natural History Museum in London.