Museo del National Institute of Anthropology and History (Museo del INAH / INAH Museum)
Address: Retorno del Rey, Cancun, 77500, Mexico, MX
Tel: +52 998 883 0305
Cancun's National Institute of Anthropology and History Museum, often abbreviated simply to the INAH Museum, is an impressive archaeological museum and located on the southerly side of the Centro de Convenciones, within the Zona Hotelera. The majority of the exhibits date back to the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries and include jewellery, masks and even some skulls, being displayed in a series of individual rooms. Various art works and visiting exhibitions complete the main attractions.
Open hours: Tuesday to Friday - 09:00 to 20:00, Saturday and Sunday - 10:00 to 19:00
Admission: free
National Institute of Anthropology
and History (INAH)
Cancun’s museum is located on the ground floor of the city's
convention center. It traces the Maya culture with an impressive collection of
1,000 to 1,500-year-old artifacts. There are a number of impressive carvings and
frescoes, along with ancient artifacts that have been unearthed at nearby sites
throughout Quintana Roo. A visit to the National Institute of Anthropology and
History can add another dimension to your exploration of the Maya ruins and is a
fascinating introduction to the ancient culture. It’s also a great way to pass a
rainy day in Cancun. Guided tours in English, French, German, and Spanish are
available. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 9 AM – 7 PM. Admission: $3, children under 11
free. Sundays free. Located at the Cancun Convention Center, Blvd Kukulcán Km 9.
Tel: (998) 883-0305.
Zona Arqueológica El Rey
Address: Boulevard Kukulcán, Retorno del Rey, Cancun, 77500, Mexico, MX
Located within the Archeological Zone of Cancun, this cultural attraction is regularly visited by tourists and offers an insight into the region's ancient and quite fascinating Maya civilisation. The Zona Arqueológica El Rey is an impressive archaeological site and was once a city, with remains dating back to 13th century. Guided tours are one of the best ways to make sense of these remains and are available in different languages, including English.
Open hours: daily - 08:00 to 17:00
Admission: charge
According to the director of the INAH, Alfonso de Maria y Campos, the more than 12 million annual foreign and local visitors that come to Cancun for its sun and beaches will be pleasantly surprised to discover this unique museum in the area’s famous hotel zone. The museum expects about a million annual guests.
Five buildings are open to the public: The Great Pyramid, a 26 foot structure where the main building is located; The South, comprising of residential units, palace-style building and small altars; Dragons - named in the 1970’s after an area where snake heads were found and mistaken for dragon heads - in this area stands a temple adorned with fragments of ancient mural paintings of animals and marine elements.
Next to the Maya Museum, the San Miguelito archeological site recently opened as well. This location was inhabited over 800 years ago until the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors.
Cancun’s Maya Museum and the archeological site of San Miguelito are located on Km 16 on Kukulkan Boulevard in Cancun’s Hotel Zone.
The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., except on Thursday (7 a.m. – 10 p.m.) Tickets cost around $5 for access to both the museum and San Miguelito site.
Children under 13 and adults over 60 years old receive free admission. On Sunday, admission is free to local residents with official identification.
http://cancun.travel/en/2012/11/16/cancun-welcomes-its-very-own-maya-museum-2/
- located at km 16 of the Cancun hotel zone, within the 20-acre premises of the Archaeological Site of San Miguelito.
Three exhibit halls, elevated more than 3,000 feet above sea level to prevent flood damage during storms, focus on the Mayan people, architecture, art and artifacts, including tools and fragmented sculptures.
Mexico’s tourism board, however, wants to attract even more visitors to the nation, particularly those who seek not just sun and sand, but culture.
ReplyDeleteThe Mexican government expects that the museum will attract about a million guests each year and form one of the pillars of the nation’s new push to become a top destination for the type of people who generally have more money and stay longer than the average beachgoer.
Mexico, whose travel and tourism industry now constitutes 13.2 percent of the country's GDP, set aside $10 million for the Mundo Maya 2012 initiative last summer, and it invited four neighboring countries with historic Maya ties -- Belize, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala -- to collaborate. The campaign revolves around the end of the Maya calendar on Dec. 21, 2012, and the beginning of a new era, and it includes aggressive infrastructure investment in roads and facilities to improve access to archeological sites and develop projects like the Maya Museum.
Beyond the money and attention, what Mexico really hopes to get out of the Year of the Maya is a little respect. Sure, the government acknowledges that just 40,000 of its estimated 200,000 archeological sites are properly registered. Sure, just 200 of those are open to the public. But the more Mexico can diversify its tourism offerings away from the beach and into the interior, its tourism board argues, the more it can protect its heritage, draw international crowds from beyond North America and ultimately prosper.
“One of the beauties of tourism is that it spreads social wealth,” Rodolfo López Negrete Coppel, COO and undersecretary of the Mexico Tourism Board, told IBTimes in September. “It reaches the farthest corners of the country, reaches deep in the jungles and to the little villages.”
The Mundo Maya campaign, he said, is like a rallying cry: We’re not just America’s playground south of the border. We’re not just sun, sand and too many tequila shots. We’re a nation with a cultural wealth on par with China or Egypt.
http://www.ibtimes.com/december-21-2012-approaches-mexico-opens-15-million-maya-museum-883522
http://www.adventuresbydaddy.com/2012/11/21/cancun-mexico-opens-maya-museum/
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