19 Nov 2012
US$15m Mayan museum opens in Mexico
BY Aoife Dowling
A US$15m (11.7m euro, £9.4m) museum displaying ancient Mayan civilisation has opened in Cancun, Mexico.
Located on Kukulkan Boulevard in Cancun's Hotel Zone, the museum is the largest structure built by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) since the Templo Mayor Museum in 1987.
The 55,000sq ft (5,110sq m) Museo Maya de Cancun opened with 350 archaeological objects, including relics that have never before been shown to the public.
More than 70 per cent of the project was funded by the federal government through the INAH.
Designed by Mexican architect Alberto Garcîa Lascurain, the museum boasts three exhibition halls of more than 4,400sq ft (409sq m), as well as two permanent venues for international exhibitions.
The first gallery showcases the many archaeological sites in Quintana Roo. Wildlife and stone tools of this time period are also on display.
The second gallery is dedicated to Maya culture and archaeology throughout the Maya World. This exhibition showcases aspects of Mayan architecture, art and other artifacts that ancient Mayans used on a daily basis.
The third will host seasonal exhibitions, the first which is titled Masks of Divinity.
Highlights of the museum include 14,000-year-old skeletal remains discovered in underwater caves at Tulum.
INAH are expecting to welcome more than a million guests to the museum annually.
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