Museo Nacional de Anthropología

Aug 13, 2025

Mexico City, Mexico

Yesterday, we finally got out and visited a museum! We walked through Bosque de Chapultepec to visit Museo Nacional de Anthropología, one of Mexico City's most popular museums. We love spending time in Bosque de Chapultepec, as it is a peaceful and green respite from the busy city streets. It's certainly the CDMX site we have visited most!

The museum itself is an architectural wonder - the centerpiece of the building is a carved pillar with a waterfall that seems to effortlessly hold up a massive roof over the central courtyard. Surrounding the courtyard are various halls organizing the collections on display by region.

Though we only made it through about 2 halls of the museum, we learned a ton about pre-colonial Mesoamerican culture - leagues more than either of us learned in all our years of schooling. For example, we had no idea that not only did Mayans develop an incredibly accurate calendar, but also used an extensive written language of heiroglyphics and wrote on paper in addition to carved stone.

The many pre-colonial Mesoamerican cultures practiced advanced agriculture and water management, and settlements spread throughout modern Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras traded resources extensively. They also carried out inter-cultural alliances and warfare not so different from the dramas of medieval Europe. Below is an example of carved figures depicting members of the different social classes of Mayan culture.

I was especially enamored with the ancient musical instruments on display, made largely of clay - flutes, horns, and shell and turtle-shaped ocarinas. Other highlights were the reproduction Mayan buildings and friezes in the exterior gardens and early tools made of obsidian.

It was quite the brain exercise to read the plaques in Spanish, even though the language used was largely simple enough for us to decipher. Only the largest panels featured English translations. I look forward to returning when our Spanish is better! When we needed a break, we stopped at the museum cafe and enjoyed delicious tortas on their patio. I'll never say no to a torta, and these were exceptional.

As always on our adventures in Mexico City, not bringing raincoats guaranteed an afternoon downpour on our way back. We were again thankful for the trees of Bosque de Chapultepec, this time for helping us stay dry.