One of the great museums of the world, holding the Aztec Sun Stone and the whole of Mesoamerica, under a concrete umbrella.
Opened in 1964 and designed by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, this is one of the two or three most important archaeological museums in the world and the single best reason to come to Mexico City.
The building
Twenty-three halls around a rectangular courtyard, with the whole thing shaded by El Paraguas — the umbrella — a vast concrete canopy 84 by 54 metres supported on a single central column, with water falling from its rim in a continuous curtain into the courtyard.
The column is carved by José and Tomás Chávez Morado. The engineering is the point: one support for a roof of that span.
The ground floor — archaeology
Twelve halls, arranged chronologically and by region, running anticlockwise.
Teotihuacan — the reconstructed façade of the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, and material from the city forty kilometres north.
Mexica (Aztec) — the central and largest hall, holding the Piedra del Sol, the Sun Stone: a 24-tonne basalt disc found under the Zócalo in 1790, carved with the cosmology of the five suns. It is the emblem of Mexico and it is far larger in person than photographs suggest.
Also the Coatlicue monolith, the goddess with a skirt of serpents; the Tizoc Stone; and a scale model of Tenochtitlan.
Maya — stelae from Palenque, a replica of Pakal’s tomb including the sarcophagus lid, and the jade death mask.
Oaxaca for the Zapotec and Mixtec; Gulf Coast for the colossal Olmec heads; Northern and Western Mexico; Toltec; and the preclassic halls.
The upper floor — ethnography
The living indigenous cultures of Mexico — around 68 recognised language groups — with dress, housing, ritual and craft, arranged to mirror the archaeology below.
It is genuinely excellent and it is where museum fatigue usually wins. Consider a second visit rather than pushing through.
Practicalities
Ticketed and inexpensive; free for Mexican nationals and residents on Sundays, which makes Sunday very busy.
Closed Mondays.
Allow four to five hours minimum. There is a restaurant in the courtyard and a good bookshop.
Labelling is in Spanish with substantial English; audio guides are available and worth it.
Outside
The Voladores de Papantla perform in the forecourt several times a day — four men descending on ropes from a thirty-metre pole while a fifth plays a flute at the top, a Totonac ritual now on the UNESCO intangible heritage list.
They perform for tips and it is free to watch.
More Museums
Museo Frida Kahlo
The blue house in Coyoacán where she was born, lived with Rivera, and died, kept as it was left.
Museo del Templo Mayor
The Aztec great temple, found by electricity workers in 1978 under the corner of the Zócalo, excavated and left open.
Museo Soumaya and Museo Jumex
A silver-scaled asymmetric tower built by the richest man in Latin America, free to enter, next door to a serious contemporary gallery.