Musuems - The National Museum of Anthropology

The Museo Nacional de Antropología (MNA, or National Museum of Anthropology) is a national museum of Mexico. Located within Chapultepec Park in Mexico City,along the paseo de la reforma. The museum contains significant archaeological and anthropological artifacts from the pre-Columbian heritage of Mexico, such as the Piedra del Sol (Aztec calendar stone) and the 16th-century Aztec statue of Xochipilli. Designed in 1963 by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, Jorge Campuzano and Rafael Mijares, it has an impressive architecture with exhibition halls surrounding a patio with a huge pond and a vast square concrete umbrella supported by a single slender pillar (known as "el paraguas", Spanish for "the umbrella") around which splashes an artificial cascade. The halls are ringed by gardens, many of which contain outdoor exhibits. The museum has 23 rooms for exhibits and covers an area of 79,700 square meters.

Opened in 1964 by President Adolfo López Mateos, the museum has a number of significant exhibits, such as the Stone of the Sun (depicted on the right), giant stone heads of the Olmec civilization that were found in the jungles of TabascoVeracruz, treasures recovered from the Maya civilization, the Sacred CenoteChichen Itza, a replica of the sarcophagal lid from Pacal's tomb at Palenqueethnological displays of contemporary rural Mexican life. It also has a model of the location and layout of the former Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, the site of which is now occupied by the central area of modern-day Mexico City itself.

The museum also hosts visiting exhibits, generally focusing on other of the world's great cultures. Past exhibits have focused on Persia, Greece, China, Egypt & Spain.

At the entrance is an imposing statue of Tlaloc, the Aztec god of rain. They say that on the day it was brought to its current location, an unforgettable, torrential rain fell on Mexico City... Located infront of the msueum in a clearing, the daily performances of the "papantla flyers" also is an unmisable experience for any visitor to Mexico city.