If you are interested in anthropology and would like to have new experience and impressions, go to a place where you can spend some time doing something interesting. An anthropology museum is one of the best places you can visit.
If you are only curious about different cultures or world development, regardless about how much you really know, an anthropology museum will still have something surprising to present to you.
If you plan on visiting Mexico City, one of the best places to visit is the National Museum of Anthropology and History, which is situated on Avenida Paseo de la Reforma and Calzada Gandhi, Colonia Chapultepec Polanco. It’s open every day of the week except for Monday. There are 23 exhibition halls, where you’ll find breathtaking collections of archaeological and ethnographic items, sculptures, calendars and many other survivals of the ancient world.
The archaeological collection is on the ground floor. When you are there, you have the opportunity to watch how the cultures changed in Mexico throughout the centuries. The cultures of different periods take over the next as you walk farther. The ending point of this collection is Aztec culture. Among the possessions of the museum probably the most astonishing item is the Aztec Calendar, which Mexicans often call the Sun Stone.
This impressive stone (1427 – 1479) was found during the reconstruction of Mexico City in 1790. It is decorated with beautiful carvings that represent the months and the days of the Aztec calendar. However, this extraordinary stone and the face of an Aztec god carved in its center are a topic for debate between anthropologists.
Among the exhibits you’ll also find stone heads of the Olmec civilization. This stones represent the heads of Olmec warriors and were found in the forests of Tabasco and Veracruz. Surviving artifacts from the Mayan civilization found there also worthy of praise and respect.
It’s impossible to name all the treasures that this anthropology museum displays. Even if a whole encyclopedia was written about them, we would not be able to picture their indescribable uniqueness and mystery. When you leave the building of the museum, you’ll have a sense of having learned much more about the world in single a day.
Photo © Michael McCarty
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