Edinburgh - National Museum of Scotland

Edinburgh has been the capital of Scotland since the 15th century. With a population of around 525,000, it is the second largest city in Scotland after Glasgow.

The city is a cultural centre, and is the home of institutions including the National Museum of Scotland, the National Library of Scotland and the Scottish National Gallery. Edinburgh's Old Town and New Town together are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The National Museum of Scotland was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum.

Both parts of the museum are located right next to each other on Chambers Street. The Royal Museum is a museum of natural sciences, technology and art. It is housed in a building dating from 1888. The Museum of Scotland deals with Scottish history and culture. It is located in a new building completed in 1998 right next to the 1888 building.

Lewis chessmen

The Lewis chessmen are a set of 78 chess pieces that were discovered in 1831 on the Isle of Lewis, the largest island in the Outer Hebrides. They were probably made in Norway in the second half of the 12th century.

At this time, chess had spread from the Arab world to Europe via Sicily and Spain. Vikings, who traded briskly with the Arabs in the Mediterranean, brought chess to Scandinavia early on. The Lewis chess pieces were made in the Romanesque style from the ivory of walruses and whale teeth. A total of 78 pieces have survived to this day, belonging to four sets of pieces, two of which are complete.

The circumstances under which the figures came to the Isle of Lewis are unknown. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Outer Hebrides were part of the Norwegian Empire.

67 figures are now in the British Museum. 11 figures are in the National Museum of Scotland.