national museum of archaeology and ethnology

A chronological history of Guatemala. In English and Spanish. Well worth a visit. Spent two hours there and could have stayed longer.

Did you know that upon request, you can rent the main patio for a memorable dinner? next to the National Museum of modern art, you can explore Guatemala's ancient story, get to know about the main Mayan Cities and enjoy the decoration of an exquisite building that used to be a ball room back In the 1920's.

Big building housing some nice artifacts, but some of the exhibits need some work - can we stand the people up straight! Feels less than loved .... if you have the time go, but not knock yourselves out if you cannot make it.

I was hoping to see the Tikal Mask but it was locked up with other jade artifacts. Another issue is that there is no English translation in the information plaques. Most people can walked through the museum in less than an hour,

This is where the Mayans come to life , so much to see , an interpreter would help if your not up on your Spanish.

We visited the museum on a weekday afternoon. It's a beautiful bright coral colored building, and there are two other museums next to it. We visited the Museum of Modern Art as well. It is very inexpensive to visit both museums. The employees do not speak English, but all you need to do is buy your ticket from them. All of the signs are in Spanish as well, but the artifacts are interesting enough that you won't care if you can't read the signs. We took our time to see everything, and it took us about 90 min to see it all. The best part by far is the vault with the jewelry in it. We were so impressed with the jade jewelry found at a burial site in Tikal, which we went to visit the next day. It would be a great place to visit if you don't have time to see any of the ruins while you are in Guatemala.

This museum is the best you can find,guives you the idea of the Mayan ruins in Guatemala,it has an exemple of sculptures,it has an excelent scale model of tikal,a good colection of textile with its history,the jade volt is beatiful but it is open only three days per week.the building that have it is spanish colonial times, the building dates from 1940.

My co workers and I took time to get to the museum and had a wonderful time. Even though one of our party wasn't a history buff she still was fascinated by the artwork and textiles. Don't miss the chance to see history up close.

extensive collection of pre-Columbian artifacts -- interpretation primarily in Spanish. Excellent overview of the sites and collection of materials excavated over many years.

A good collection of various artifacts,some quite stunning. Our visit was too brief,but so glad we went. If you want to see Mayan,you should stop here.

If you are used to perfect museums in other places, you could find some fault with curatorial details such as pedestal color and lighting. However, I give them a top score because I am in love with the art & culture of Guatemala -- and the museum did a fine job of teaching more about these topics.

Of course they charge us tourists more than locals, but its less than $10, and you can easily spend 3 or 4 hours here. The collection is very large and quite broad, only lacking some English references, but you can get by.

I visited this museum on my last day in Guatemala, which happened to be a Sunday. While I enjoyed my visit and I understand why foreigners are charged ten times more than locals, I am giving this museum a terrible ranking in order to hopefully give museum officials motivation to not remove and lock up the most important artifacts on the weekends. While part of the jade display was present at the front of the museum, some items were missing, presumably locked up with the jade masks in a vault further on in. I was nicely told to come back Tuesday. I don't know what kind of problems this museum may have in showcasing these items on the weekend. It certainly was not busy while I was there. The museum is, however, better than one I visited in Campeche and Honduras. Spanish reading knowledge critical. Was told there were no guides available at reception. Employees I spoke to were very nice.

I and my brother visited the museum on Friday, March 14, 2014, and found that staff Historian, Glenda Castillo, to be most helpful and informative is explaining the archaeological displays which were fantastic. She was very hospitable, polite, and knowledgeable of all Mayan historical topics. My thanks to Glenda and the entire museum staff; they made my visit memorable.In admiration,KrissMayan Archealogy Researcher

So many artifacts from the ancient Mayan History. This is a must to see if you want to understand past Guatemala culture.