Two More Museums

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

We got out of the hotel early and went over to the nearby National Museum of Anthropology. It is located in the large and attractive Chapultepec Park (which has a number of attractions, such as other museums).

Here is the map showing the central area of the city. The red museum pin is the Anthropology Museum.

It is a large museum and we spent three hours going through the display rooms on the ground floor. The rooms are devoted to different Meso–American civilizations that go back about two thousand years. We’ll visit the upper floor on our next visit!

Some of the exhibits are quite large. This structure with fountains is about 20 feet/6 meters high. It came from Teotihuacan, which we are going to visit tomorrow.

Some of the statues of heads were as tall as a person.

This is Pakal the Great. He became king in 615 and ruled for 68 years. This photo shows jewelry from his funeral.

Two more large sculptures—

An iconic Mayan Chaacmool statue.

The museum also has larger exhibits in an attractive area outside. Here’s a small section of one.

After lunch at a taqueria where we sampled the local taco specialty—al pastor—we went to the popular Museo de Arte Popular (orange museum pin on the map). This museum highlights the cultural significance of art and crafts in Mexico. We learned that much of Mexican popular art is autobiographical, which explains why self–portraits of major artists are common.

This fellow is having a bad hair day.