Being in the area and originally hoping to check out the Palacio Nacional, though finding the time…read moretoo tight to make the 10am English tour time, without prior reservations, I ended up at a few nearby sights then circling back to this museum--the National Museum of World Cultures--toward the middle of the afternoon.
Located in the same 18th century complex as the National Palace, the entrance to this museum is on Moneda with the closest intersecting street being Calle del Correo Mayor. Walking in to the building is a bit like walking into a fort, similar to many other grander historic structures in the area there's a central courtyard surrounded by a couple floors of corridors and galleries. There's not much of an official ticket office (or maybe we missed it), and entry is free.
Founded in 1825 by the order of the first President of Mexico, General Guadalupe Victoria, in 1865 by decree of Emperor Maximilian of Hapsburg the museum started housing collections of pre-Hispanic Mexican history. Subsequently the same location also housed the first mint and Supreme Court, though in the context of museum workings became a center of archaeological, anthropological, and ethnographic research and documentation over the ensuing century.
The main permanent exhibit halls include a wing on the origins of western civilization (Mesopotamia, Greek and Egyptian), a hall dedicated to Istanbul, Turkey, an Asian wing (China, Japan, Korea, with smaller halls featuring Indian traditional attire, Mongolian plains life via photographs, a temporary exhibit on Japanese calendars*), and an exhibit of children's toys from different world cultures. There were a couple areas where galleries were under construction for upcoming exhibits.
Two interesting things I noticed were 1) that almost all the ancient artifacts in this museum are replicas, there are very few original/real items, 2) of the ancient artifacts that were replicated, there were an abundance of cute-looking ones**, much more so than I've seen in other museums, which I wasn't sure if was purposeful or incidental, though I found this humorous.
Hours are 10am-6pm daily except closed Mondays. I'd suggest about 2-3 hours to go thru at a leisurely pace, though heads up basically all the detailed placards are in Spanish, so if you're not a native speaker, be prepared with a visual translation app on your phone or do your Duolingo homework before going. Gift shop, lockers (free) and bathrooms are available.
For more info:
museodelasculturas.mx
*kinda random tho kinda cool? It was like walking thru a store with a lot of calendars hanging on the wall.
**cute = small and round.
