Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealed At The NAT

San Diegans and San Diego tourists have the opportunity to learn about Mayan culture at the San Diego Natural History Museum’s newest exhibit, “Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealed,” until January 3, 2016. They were one of the most advanced ancient civilizations and influenced many of our technologies and beliefs today. “Their sophistication with respect to math, astronomy, and architecture, to name a few, was way ahead of their time,” said Dr. Michael Hager, president and CEO of the San Diego Natural History Museum.
Visitors get to experience ancient Maya with interactive exhibits, multimedia displays and more than 200 authentic artifacts. You can even generate your Mayan name, learn to pronounce it, print it, and take it home. The exhibit is one of the largest to have ever been displayed in the United States and spans 10,000 square feet. Having been to some of the original sites in Guatemala and Honduras, seeing the replica of El Castillo pyramid in Xunantunich, a Maya civic ceremonial center located in Western Belize, made me want to travel to the real thing.

It’s fascinating to see the complexity of the architecture and hard to not wonder, where would we be now had so many of them not been destroyed? Many of the cities were abandoned and many died due to the typical story of American civilizations whose culture deteriorated and/or vanished; they could not survive European disease, murder, betrayal, war and sometimes-violent religious conversions.

This is why the most significant part of the exhibit is the acknowledgement that some Mayans did survive. There are over 6 million who still live by their past traditions with merged influence from Catholicism. Nobel Peace Prize recipient and Mayan, Rigoberta Mench’u Tum brought attention to the struggle through her advocacy and writing to preserve the culture, “We are not myths of the past, ruins in the jungle or zoos. We are people and we want to be respected, not to be victims of intolerance and racism”.

Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealed was created by the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and the Museum of Science, Boston. For additional information about the exhibition or to purchase tickets, visit sdnat.org/maya or call 877.946.7797.
About the San Diego Natural History Museum
The San Diego Natural History Museum (theNAT) is the second oldest scientific institution in California and the third oldest west of the Mississippi. Founded in 1874 by a small group of citizen scientists, the Museum’s mission is to interpret the natural world through research, education and exhibits; to promote understanding of the evolution and diversity of southern California and the peninsula of Baja California, Mexico; and to inspire in all people respect for the environment. The Museum is located at 1788 El Prado, San Diego, CA 92101 in Balboa Park.

For more information, call 877.946.7797 or visit sdnat.org. Follow theNAT on Twitter and Instagram and join the discussion on Facebook. Tag your photos with #theNAT and #MayaSD.