Everything You Can See at Mexico’s National Museum of Anthropology

The National Museum of Anthropology (Museo Nacional de Antropologia in Spanish) is an essential stop on your Mexico City itinerary. As the most visited museum in the city with the most museums in the world, I consider this to be one of the most interesting museums I’ve ever been to. Its massive collection of artefacts and antiquities has enthralled guests at its current location since 1964. Its truly a world class institution that should make any list of the world’s best museums. If I haven’t convinced you to visit the National Museum of Anthropology yet, hopefully this post will provide a sample of whats inside to pique your curiosity. There’s no place better to get an understanding of pre-Hispanic Mexico and its varying myriad of cultures and civilisations.

• Speaking of Mexico City itineraries, you’ll want to check out mine to make sure you don’t miss any of the highlights during your stay. Read my 3 day guide HERE.

National Museum of Anthropology – The Basics:

• Where? Paseo de la Reforma and Cazalda Gandhi, Bosque de Chapultepec Primera Seccion, Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico.
• When? The National Museum of Anthropology is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9.00am to 6.00pm (closed Mondays).
• How much? General admission to the Museum costs $90.00 MXN for adults. Admission is free to children under the age of 13 years. Note that Mexican citizens and foreign residents can enter the Museum for free on Sundays.
• How to get there: The Museum is an easy walk north from the first section of Chapultepec Park. It sits across the main road north of the park. If you’re coming from further abroad, Metro Auditorio (Line 7) and Metro Chapultepec (Line 1) are the closest metro stations.
• Website: https://www.mna.inah.gob.mx/

Visiting the National Museum of Anthropology

Being just beyond the Bosque de Chapultepec, the National Museum of Anthropology is the perfect addition to a day spent taking in the famous park’s attractions. You should count on spending at least a few hours though, as there is so much to see in this museum. I headed to the Anthropology Museum around midday and spent the better part of the afternoon there, including a delicious lunch at the on-site restaurant. While I visited later in the day than usual (I normally aim to hit up major museums early to beat the crowds), I didn’t find guest levels to be too unbearable. At the time of my visit, I had to queue up to purchase tickets (it didn’t take long), but it looks like you can actually now buy admission tickets on the official website.

• Another excellent museum near the Museum of Anthropology can be found in Castillo de Chapultepec. You can read about my visit to the National Museum of History inside HERE.

The Museum’s entrance hall contains a space for temporary exhibits, but there’s so much to see in the permanent collection that if you’re time pressed you’ll probably have to skip over these. I do recommend checking out the brief film in the Introductory Hall though. It sets the context for what you’ll see throughout the museum while a model of Tenochtitlan (the Aztec capital that sits below Mexico City) comes to life.

From there, you’ll head outside into the Museum’s main courtyard. Its surrounded by the various exhibit halls, but before diving in, you can’t miss the massive water feature in the middle. Consisting of a gigantic column, the umbrella (el paraguas), supports an 84 metre long stone canopy. The canopy is the world’s largest concrete structure supported by a single pillar (don’t worry, its survived earthquakes!). With water gushing down, the column is decorated with carvings depicting Mexico’s pre-Hispanic history, while emphasising the overarching importance of nature.

The Exhibits of the National Museum of Anthropology

The National Museum of Anthropology’s permanent collection spans 22 halls across two levels. The ground floor covers the archeological side of the museum, and is where you’ll want to spend the majority of your time. By touring this floor, you’ll come across the various groups that developed and thrived in Pre-Hispanic Mexico. The upper floor halls, dedicated to ethnography are worth checking out if you have more time. They focus on modern life for the descendants of Mexico’s indigenous groups. Regardless of where you are in the Museum, you’ll find the exhibits have excellent signage in both English and Spanish.

The Ground Floor

The best way to tackle the first floor of the National Museum of Anthropology is by taking a counter-clockwise tour of the various halls, following the numbering on your map. The first set of halls (1 to 3) consist of an introduction to the study of anthropology and the expansion of human settlement across the American continent. You’ll learn of the way in which the Americas were originally populated by people from north and north-eastern Asia moving across land bridges some 40,000 years ago. Many of these people settled in the region that we know today as Mesoamerica (consisting of Mexico and neighbouring countries in Central America).

Initially hunter-gatherers, these early people developed subsistence agriculture and eventually formed a series of early communities in Mexico’s Central Highlands. This Pre-Classical period (2500 BC to AD 100) saw various societies flourish. From around 600 BC, there was already evidence of these people worshipping key gods in the Mesoamerican pantheon such as Huehueteotl and Tlaloc. Various artefacts dating back from this era can be found in this section of the museum. The part of this collection that I found most interesting was the excavation of a burial place from Tlatilco. Over 500 human burials were found over four excavation seasons at this Preclassical site.

Teotihuacan

The first major highlight of the Museum is the hall dedicated to the ancient civilisation of Teotihuacan. Spanning the period 100 BC to AD 800, Teotihuacan is one of the most important sites of Classical Mesoamerica. Even after its fall, it was referred to by the Aztecs as the “place where men became gods” and inspired them and various other groups through architecture, religious symbolism and other practices. Teotihuacan is just north-east of Mexico City and is one of the best day trips you can take from the city. It was one of my favourite places in Mexico, and going there made the displays in this part of the National Museum of Anthropology that much more interesting to me.

• I’ve written about my trip to Teotihuacan. You can read more HERE.

The Teotihuacan collection is dominated by the huge stone facade of the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, one of three major pyramids that can be visited at the site today. Unlike the remains of Teotihuacan’s archeological site however, the reproductions on display in the Museum of Anthropology are vibrantly coloured. The blue and red paints provide some idea as to what the city would have looked like during its peak before falling into a mysterious decline. There’s original artefacts on display as well, perhaps most notably a huge statue of the war goddess Chalchiuhtlicue, which was found at the foot of the site’s Pyramid of the Moon.

One of the things I like about the Museum of Anthropology is that a number of its exhibits make use of the surrounding outdoor space. Teotihuacan’s exhibit does that with a massive scale model of the entire city. While you’ll see something similar at the site museum if you visit the Pyramids themselves, its definitely worth getting out in the fresh air to see it here.

The Toltecs

Moving onwards, the next hall in the Museum focuses on the groups that rose to prominence in Mexico’s Epi-Classical era. Initially independent centres such as Xochicalco, Cantolona and Cacaxtla emerged, however it were the Toltecs who are most associated with this period, spanning from AD 700 – 1200. Based from the Central Plateau city of Tula, the Toltecs gained a reputation for their military prowess and arts (fun fact: the word Toltec actually translates to “Artist”). The most prominent pieces in the collection from the Toltecs are their towering stone warrior columns. Excavated from sites such as the Temple of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, the Atlante column provides an example, carved in the shape of a divine warrior and said to illustrate the power of the military caste of a city founded by Quetzalcoatl himself. In addition to the monument, many other stone objects can be seen including serpent depictions and a Chac-mool figure.

The Hall of the Aztecs (Mexica)

If you’ve only got time to visit one exhibit in the National Museum of Anthropology, you’ll want to make it the Hall of the Aztecs. Focusing on one of Mexico’s most famous civilisations, this is the Museum’s largest hall and contains an abundance of displays, relics and artefacts from the empire that ruled over much of Mexico by the time Hernan Cortez arrived in 1519. The collection is broken up into various sections, focusing on multifaceted aspects such as Aztec deities, their rulers, war and conquest, and the importance of blood sacrifices.

The right side of the Hall of the Aztecs focuses on everyday life and their might in battle. The Stone of Tizoc records the victories of the Aztec’s seventh ruler, while other sculptures depict ordinary Mexica, such as the nobles adorned in robes indicative of their ranks. Many of the artefacts contained in the hall were excavated from Mexico City itself, as the Zocalo was built atop the Templo Mayor in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. A large model of the complex can be seen in the hall depicting what the city would have looked like when the Spanish arrived.

• You can read about my visit to the Templo Mayor site HERE.

On the left side, the collection focuses on Aztec religious ceremonies and beliefs. Numerous gods are depicted, while a stone altar is also laid out on display. These altars were used to stretch out the victims of human sacrifice so their hearts could be removed and stored in stone vessel (such as the Ocelotl-Cuauhxicalli receptacle on display). Other ceremonial pieces include a replica of the headdress worn by the Aztec leader Moctezuma II, one of the most famous rulers in Aztec history (the original headpiece is now in Austria).

The Sun Stone

The most important relic in the Hall of Aztecs has to be the Piedra del Sol (Sun Stone). Unearthed from the Zocalo in 1790, it depicts various Aztec deities. With a diameter of 3.6 metres and weighing in at 24 tons, the circular stone holds a prominent position in the middle of the hall and attracts its fair share of admirers. It actually bears a resemblance to the cyclical Mayan calendars, and was originally thought to be a calendar too, though this has since been disproven. While the purpose of the Sun Stone remains unknown, the carvings and symbols that adorn it emphasise the importance of the sun in connection with the beginning and end of the Aztec world. An image of the Sun God Tonatiuh occupies the middle of the stone, and the stone in general has become something of an unofficial symbol of Mexican culture.

Oaxaca

The remainder of the exhibit halls on the ground floor of the National Museum of Anthropology focus on the civilisations that rose to prominence across regions of Mexico beyond the Central Highlands. The first region showcased is Oaxaca. Located to the south of the country, two great cultures flourished in this region in Pre-Hispanic times. In this hall, you’ll learn about the Zapotecs (builders of the hilltop city Monte Alban) and their successors, the Mixtecs (who preferred to live in the mountainous and coastal areas of the region. These two civilisations dominated Oaxaca from before 1000BC to the early 16th century.

As with other civilisations showcased throughout the Museum, those of Oaxaca are highlighted through a collection of ceramics. Zapotec arts in particular are represented by various urns and receptacles themed around animals, humans and gods. The highlight of the collection has to be the reconstruction of Tomb 104 of Monte Alban though, complete with offerings to the dead and an assortment of crafted vessels.

The Gulf of Mexico

Moving onwards, your journey through the Museum takes you further north to the region of Mexico sitting along the shores of the Gulf. While a range of civilisations came to dominate this region throughout history, including the Totonac and Huastec, the best known are the Olmecs. Even if you haven’t heard of the Olmecs, you’ll surely be familiar with their most famous monuments – a collection of Olmec Heads that each weigh almost 20 tons! Dating back to the Preclassical period, the Olmecs were based on the southern Gulf coast from around 1200 to 600 BC and were key players in establishing urban centers such as La Venta in Tabasco and San Loreno in Veracruz.

The Maya

The Maya certainly need no introduction, but there’s plenty to learn about them in their exhibit at the National Museum of Anthropology. One of the most famous pre-Hispanic Mexican cultures, the Maya came to prominence in the Yucatan peninsular, as well as neighbouring Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. There’s so many Mayan sites that you can visit throughout Mesoamerica, and the collection of carved stelae and other pieces of art, sculptures and carvings gives you a great overview. You’ll see great diversity in the objects on display, which makes sense considering the Maya culture developed from the pre-Classic to post-Classic periods. spanning across 1500 years of history. In that time, they developed complex writing systems documenting their traditions, which has provided historians with much to decipher and learn about their beliefs and practices.

• One of the most famous Mayan sites in Mexico is Chichen Itza. Its a must-visit if you’re headed to the Yucatan. Read about it HERE.

One of the most impressive features of the Museum’s Maya collection is the reconstruction of the royal tomb of King Pakal, one of the most important Mayan rulers. The original was found underneath the Temple of Inscriptions at Palenque (in the Chiapas region). It was discovered in the 1950s and immediately dazzled its discoverers with its collection of Mayan jewels and craftwork.

The Maya collection also extends outside. In the Museum’s gardens you’ll find recreations of various ceremonial buildings from Mayan sites. The most significant of these is the full-size version of the Temple of the Frescoes of Bonampak. Inside, vibrantly distinct paintings of various Maya warlords can be observed. Can I mention again how much I loved the immersive nature of this Museum?

West and Northern Mexico

After being through the rest of the Museum, the last couple of halls won’t blow you away, but you’ll need to stop by quickly to complete your tour of the regions of Mexico. Covering the more sparsely populated northern deserts and Pacific coast, here you’ll learn about the groups that developed here. Unfortunately, not as many characteristic civilisations were based here compared to the rest of Mexico, though you will see displays focusing on settlements such as Paqima and Alta Vista, as well as the Tarascans. Honestly, I rushed through this section of the Museum (I was ready for lunch!), but for a comprehensive look at this less famous region of pre-Hispanic Mexico, this is the place to come.

The Ethnography Halls

If you’re still wanting more after touring the ground floor of the National Museum of Anthropology, head upstairs to the Ethnography Halls. This upper level is comprised of 11 more permanent displays. The series of interconnected rooms focus on various aspects of life for various ethnic groups across the country. Over 58 indigenous groups are recognised in Mexico today, and as you wander the halls here you’ll be able to learn about their cultures and practices. The halls are filled with traditional buildings, textiles and costumes, pottery, masks, furnishings and much more. I only took a quick walk through this level of the Museum (most first time visitors will probably do the same). There’s numerous dioramas that are interesting to check out while you do so though – they range from performing mariachi bands to Day of the Dead ofrendas, and literally everything in between.

With so much to see, a visit to the National Museum of Anthropology can be overwhelming, but there’s no better place to learn about the diversity of cultures that comprised Mexico prior to the arrival of the Spaniards. With so many displays, there’s no knowing what you’ll come across if you dive into the Museum’s collection, and I recommend everyone heading to Mexico City stop by for a few hours. What cultures or civilisations are you keen to learn about when travelling to Mexico?