National Museum of Scotland

The National Museum of Scotland was disappointingly for me, a letdown. With such a prestigious name and being so large a building I had high hopes, but most of the museum was very interactive and aimed at children, there were in fact only a few pieces of real interest to me.

An ancient armored armadillo and an extinct giant deer were the center pieces of the natural collection. 

This is an Inchkeith Lighthouse lens. It was designed in 1889 by David A. Stevenson for the Inchkeith lighthouse. This lighthouse had first been designed in 1803 by Robert Stevenson - thus five generations of Stevonson's built and designed lighthouses across the coast of Scotland, saving many lives. This lens was used until 1985 when the last lighthouse keeper was withdrawn and the lights became automated. 

Frances Teresa Stuart was regarded as one of the most beautiful women in England during the 17th Century, King Charles II was infatuated with her and chose her as the face of Britannia. Thus her image was used on British currency for a time.

This dude was one of my favourite exhibits from the entire museum. Iufenamun, son of Nesypaqashuty (early 22nd Dynasty) was a senor priest who was given the important task of moving the mummified bodies of Egyptian pharaohs away from the Valley of Kings to protect them from grave-robbers. Over fifty pharaohs were hidden in Deir el-Bahari, and they were only rediscovered in 1881. The interesting part is that the coffin lid dates from the 21st Dynasty and is thought to belong to Iufenamun's grandmother.
Also interesting is the facial reconstruction pictured on the right; using non-intrusive methods they were able to reconstruct what he would have looked like, and that he died at around forty. 

There was also a very small section on Darwin, as he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh.  the bird - an earthcreeper specimen- pictured on the left was collected by him in Chile during the Beagle expedition. The book pictured on the right is of course, the Origin of Species. 

An extremely creepy albino hedgehog. Red eyes!