Museums & culture

The Palace Museum (Forbidden City), the National Museum of China, the Terracotta Army: China unfolds a vast museum heritage.

The Grand Egyptian Museum, near the Giza pyramids, gathers thousands of pharaonic treasures under one roof.

The Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, Centre Pompidou: Paris holds unrivalled collections. The Louvre is the most-visited museum in the world.

Vatican Museums, the Uffizi in Florence, the ruins of Pompeii: Italy is an open-air museum of Western art.

Mexico City's National Museum of Anthropology is one of the Americas' finest, devoted to pre-Columbian cultures.

Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, Anne Frank House: Amsterdam packs the Dutch Golden Age and history into one quarter.

The Hermitage in St Petersburg and the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow hold colossal imperial collections.

The Prado and Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Guggenheim in Bilbao: Spain pairs old masters with daring architecture.

British Museum, National Gallery, Tate Modern: London lines up world-class museums, often free to enter.

The Met and MoMA in New York, the Smithsonian in Washington: the US is home to some of the world's greatest museums.