The building is part of the collection. The National Museum of Anthropology opened in 1964 in the Bosque de Chapultepec, and its 23 galleries hold the most extensive collection of Mesoamerican art anywhere. But the architecture is an exhibit in its own right, and most visitors walk past the five things below without registering them.
1. The murals on the walls. The building was decorated by a roll-call of twentieth-century Mexican artists: Rufino Tamayo, Luis Covarrubias, Leonora Carrington, Nicolás Moreno, Alfredo Zalce, Pablo O'Higgins and Carlos Mérida.
2. El Paraguas. The "umbrella" over the central courtyard is a fountain supported by a single bronze-clad column carrying a sculptural relief, Imagen de México, by the Chávez Morado brothers, from a concept by Jaime Torres Bodet. The canopy it holds up covers 4,467.5 square metres on that one column.
3. A gold medal in São Paulo. In 1965 Mexico entered the building in the São Paulo International Architecture Biennial, and the jury awarded the gold medal to its architect, Pedro Ramírez Vázquez.
4. The stone itself. Most of the building is faced in a stone chosen to evoke the mass of a pre-Hispanic temple — a simple decision that does most of the work of making the place feel older than it is.
5. The shell that sounds. In the courtyard pool stands El Sol del Viento, a bronze spiral by Iker Larrauri that emits sounds imitating pre-Hispanic instruments.
And the pieces everyone comes for. The Coatlicue, the Sun Stone, the Toltec atlante, Pakal's jade mask, a Mixtec gold pectoral and the Tláloc monolith standing guard at the entrance.
Practical notes. Paseo de la Reforma and Calzada Gandhi; Metro Auditorio, line 7. Closed on Mondays. Half a day minimum.
in the morning or in the evening
Av Paseo de la Reforma & Calzada Gandhi S/N, Chapultepec Polanco, Miguel Hidalgo, Ciudad de México, CDMX 11560
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