Hi guys!
Today I’m going to talk about one of the most popular things you can see in Mexico City.
It’s the National Museum of Anthropology.
And I have to say, in all my travels, I’ve never had so many people so highly recommend
just one museum as this.
It’s the biggest and most popular in all of Mexico.
The museum has a huge collection of artifacts from Mexico’s pre-Columbian heritage
that are of special archaeological and anthropological significance.
The building was inaugurated in 1964 and it’s huge.
It covers about 80,000 square metres which is almost twenty acres
and the exhibition halls all face a central courtyard which has a pond in the middle
and a huge umbrella-like structure supported by one single beam.
That was actually my favourite part and it’s really something to behold.
Some of the highlights from the museum’s collection are giant stone heads
from the Olmec civilization and they were found in the jungles of Tabasco and Veracruz.
And they also have a lot of treasures that were recovered from the Mayan civilization.
The first of the most popular attractions there is the Aztec Stone Of The Sun.
It’s huge.
It’s almost twelve feet in diameter and more than three feet thick.
It weights around 24 tons.
And shortly after the Spanish conquest of Mexico City it was actually buried in the Zocalo
or downtown of Mexico City.
They discovered it during repairs on the cathedral there
and it was discovered on December 17, 1790.
I can’t imagine discovering something so significant.
There are a lot of different theories that archaeologists and historians have
about the meaning and the intention behind the stone.
Some think it was used as a calendar or it may have had significance for religion, geography,
politics, or even something else that hasn’t yet been thought of.
Whatever it’s original meaning, it is arguably now the most important Aztec sculpture
that exists in the world today.
The other exhibit at the museum you’ll hear a lot about is a reconstruction
of the tomb of Pacal The Great.
He was a Mayan ruler who ascended the throne at age 12 and lived to age 80.
So he ruled for a really long time.
And after his death, Pacal was deified and it’s said that he communicated with his descendants.
It’s a reconstruction and he’s actually buried in Chiapas, Mexico in the Temple of Inscriptions
but they’ve done it in a really realistic way.
So you actually go downstairs and it feels like you’re entering a real tomb.
What I find most interesting about this tomb is that they actually didn’t discover it
and it escaped the notice of most archaeologists until 1948.
The entrance to it was a secret.
It was a stone slab with holes plugged by stone and archaeologists had been there before
but nobody had noticed it until that time.
So it took four years to clear away all of the stone and rubble from the stairway
that led down to Pacal’s tomb and in 1952 they were able to enter.
And what they found was his skeleton still inside the coffin.
His face was covered by an elaborate jade mask wearing beaded necklaces.
They were sculptures around him and stucco reliefs that depicted his transition
from ruler to divinity.
There are also exhibitions in the gardens surrounding the museum
and they’re worthwhile to see as well.
And some of the text is translated into English in case you can’t read Spanish.
If you enjoy going to museums or you’d just like to see some outstanding artifacts
from pre-Columbian Mexico then the National Museum of Anthropology is definitely worth your time.
I hope that you enjoyed hearing more about it and, if you haven’t already,
please subscribe to my channel for more travel videos
and I’ll see you in my next one.