Museum des Sciences Naturelles (Museum of Natural Sciences), Brussels

Home to the city's natural history collection, this museum offers a vast and somewhat labyrinthine experience, with its exhibits spread across a blend of late 19th-century and 1960s galleries. There are diverse displays cover a wide range of topics, including crystals and rocks, rodents and mammals, insects and crustaceans, as well as a remarkable whale gallery showcasing the colossal remains of a blue whale, complete with informative multilingual labels to provide insight into these natural wonders.

However, the true highlight of the museum is the expansive dinosaur gallery, boasting an impressive array of dinosaur fossils. Among the most striking specimens are the fossilized skeletons of a whole herd of iguanodons, depicted as rearing up on their hind legs, although it's worth noting that these herbivores may have typically moved on all fours. The fossils were originally unearthed in the coal mines of Hainaut during the 1870s, and there's even a computer simulation helping to illustrate the potential mudslide that may have buried them.

Why You Should Visit:
Thought-provoking and highly interactive experience, going beyond the conventional displays of stuffed animals to provide a comprehensive exploration of the natural world.