Neues Museum Guide

The Neues Museum is the best reason to choose Museum Island for a first visit, and it is partly because the building itself is the exhibit. Friedrich August Stüler finished it in 1855, bombing in the Second World War left it a shell, and it stood as a ruin for decades. David Chipperfield, working with the restorer Julian Harrap, reopened it in 2009 without covering the damage: bare brick, patched plaster and fragments of wall paintings sit beside new concrete.

What you see

The museum houses the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection and the Museum of Pre- and Early History. The star is the painted bust of Nefertiti, found at Amarna in 1912 and shown alone in a room beneath the northern dome. Even if it feels staged, the face is extraordinary up close, and the room is designed to let you look at it from all sides. Photography rules around the bust have been strict, so check on the day. Elsewhere, look for the Egyptian coffins and the sculpture portraits of the Amarna royal family, and in the prehistory galleries the Berlin Gold Hat, a Bronze Age ceremonial headdress.

How long to allow

Give it two hours, longer if you read the labels. Nefertiti draws a crowd in the middle of the day, and the room can feel crowded when tour groups arrive. We would go in the first entry slots, see her first, then wander the rest more slowly, working upwards through the floors. The stairs and halls are impressive enough to justify a slow pace. Check the official site for timed tickets, which can be required, and for any galleries closed for conservation.

Pair it with

The Alte Nationalgalerie is next door, and the pair makes a sensible day, as set out in our Museum Island guide. The Bode-Museum is across the water at the north end, if you want a third stop with fewer people.

Who it suits: anyone who likes ancient history, and architecture lovers. Skip it if your child is very young and has no patience for glass cases.