Museo de Arqueología de Alta Montaña

Lonely Planet review

Perhaps the premier museum in Northern Argentina, Museo de Arqueología de Alta Montaña has a serious and informative exhibition focusing on Inca culture and, in particular, the child sacrifices the Inca left on some of the Andes' most imposing peaks.

The centerpiece of the display is the Doncella (Maiden), the mummified body of a 15-year-old girl, one of three children discovered at the peak of Llullaillaco during the 1999 expedition. It was a controversial decision to display the body (visitors may choose to view her or not) and it is a powerful experience to come face-to-face with her. Her intricately plaited hair and clothes are perfectly preserved, and her face reflects - who knows? - a distant past or a typical 21st-century Salta face; a peaceful passing or a tortured death. You decide.

The grave-goods that accompanied the children impress by their immediacy, with colors as fresh as the day they were produced. The illas (small votive figurines of animals and humans) are of silver, gold, shell and onyx, and many are clothed in textiles. It's difficult to imagine that a more privileged look at pre-Columbian South American culture will ever be offered us. Also exhibited is the 'Reina del Cerro', a mummy robbed from an Inca tomb in the 1920s that finally ended up here after a turbulent history. Some good videos give background information about the mummies and the expedition. Most of the museum's information panels are reproduced on laminated sheets in various languages. Take a jacket: comfortable mummy temperature can be pretty chilly for the rest of us. There's a library as well as a café-bar with terrace and wi-fi.