The Essentials

Inventive Ways of Seeing Museum Exhibits

New York Metropolitan Museum Of Art

With many of us not traveling and most — if not all museums —  around the world closed, welcome to some pretty inventive ways of still going to — and through — museums.

Many have offered virtual tours. But some, have gone a step further.

The British Museum now offers historical city travel guides. You can find out where to stay in Thebes, Egypt during the 13th century BC or what not to do in Nineveh, Iraq during the 7th century, and Rome in the first century AD.

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art starts its timeline in 8,000 BC and tells the complete story of thousands of works of art in its collections, including many not even on physical display.

The NASA Exoplanet Travel Bureau gives you a virtual reality tour of 3D models of galaxies far, far way right from your phone.

And last but not least, Google’s online arts and culture platform is now offering entire digitized collections from more than 2,000 museums across the globe.