Museo de Antropologia, Jalapa, Mexico
Travel Pictures And Photos

George And Audrey DeLange

The Veracruz University's Museum Of Anthropology which is devoted to the archaeology of Veracruz is probably the best museum of the Olmec culture in Mexico. We have visited many museums in the world and in our opinion this is one of the top museums in the world. It is built in what we would say is a textbook example of what a museum should be. It is spotlessly clean and up to date in every respect. All of the exhibits are found by walking down a gentle slope onto a series of galaries and courtyards. The museum is wheelchair accessable and their are ramps onto each gallary. The gallaries are arranged from the oldest civilization to the most recent. We will show pictures of exhibits in this museum that impressed us, but there are so very many exhibits that we can only place a few samples on our page. This is a museum that you must visit to appreciate. Plan to spend a day there if you can. We recommend this museum if you really enjoy the Olmec culture since seven of the large Olmec heads are in this museum including the largest head from southern Veracruz which was found in San Lorenzo. Another interesting Olmec head from San Lorenzo is pocked full of holes in what looks like a deliberate attempt to mutilate the head when San Lorenzo fell from power. Our only criticism of the museum would be that the bookstore clerks and resturant workers were not very service oriented toward their customers. It is too bad, because we may have purchased some books if the clerks would have been helpful. We noticed several people who would have made purchases but they walked away in frustration. The same could be said for the resturant. We visited this museum on January 18, 2004 and all of our photos on this page were taken on that date.