Indian Museum, Kolkata

The Indian Museum was founded by the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1814 — making it the oldest museum in India and the entire Asia-Pacific region. The current building, completed in 1875 and designed by Walter Granville (architect of the GPO and Calcutta High Court), is a vast Italianate cluster around a central courtyard. The collection runs to roughly 100,000 objects across 35 galleries. Must-see holdings include: the Bharhut stupa railings (2nd century BCE Buddhist gateway, the largest single piece of pre-Mauryan Indian art outside India); the Ashokan Lion Capital from Sarnath (which provides the Indian state emblem); a set of Egyptian mummies including a 4,000-year-old man with intact gold-covered fingernails; the Ranjit Singh armour; and the Jain Tirthankara gallery's exquisite Pala-period bronzes. The Geology Gallery holds the famous Calcutta meteorite, and the Anthropology Gallery a replica of the Mohenjo-daro Dancing Girl. The building suffers from chronic maintenance issues — galleries close intermittently for restoration. Allow at least four hours. Avoid weekends; school groups dominate. The on-site library is open to scholars.