Guatemala City Sights

  1. Casa MIMA

    The Casa MIMA is a wonderfully presented museum and cultural center set in a house dating from the late 1800s. The owners of the house were collectors with eclectic tastes ranging from French neo-Rococo, Chinese, and art deco to indigenous artifacts. The place is set up like a functioning house, filled with curios and furniture spanning the centuries.

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  2. Centro Cultural Metropolitano

    On the first floor of the Palacio de Correos you'll find the Centro Cultural Metropolitano, a surprisingly avant-garde cultural center, hosting art exhibitions, book launches, handicraft workshops and film nights.

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  3. Museo de Historia Natural

    The university's Museo de Historia Natural is at the same site as the Universidad de San Calos's botanical garden where the admission price covers both.

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  4. Museo de los Niños

    Almost opposite the entrance to La Aurora Zoo is the Museo de los Niños, a hands-on affair that is a sure success if you have kids to keep happy. The fun ranges from a giant jigsaw-map of Guatemala to a Lego room and, most popular of all, a room of original and entertaining ball games.

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  5. Museo Ixchel

    The Museo Ixchel is named for the Mayan goddess of the moon, women, reproduction and, of course, textiles. Photographs and exhibits of indigenous costumes and other crafts show the incredible richness of traditional arts in Guatemala's highland towns. If you enjoy Guatemalan textiles at all, you must visit this museum. It has disabled access, a section for children, a café, a shop and a library, and guided tours are available in English or Spanish.

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  6. Museo Miraflores

    Museo Miraflores is an excellent, modern museum inauspiciously jammed between two shopping malls a few kilometers out of town. Downstairs focuses on objects found at Kaminaljuyú, with fascinating trade route maps showing the site's importance.

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  7. Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología

    The Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología has the country's biggest collection of ancient Mayan artifacts, but explanatory information is very sparse. There's a great wealth of monumental stone sculpture, including Classic-period stelae from Tikal, Uaxactún and Piedras Negras, a superb throne from Piedras Negras and animal representations from preclassic Kaminaljuyú.

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  8. Museo Nacional de Arte Moderno

    Museo Nacional de Arte Moderno has a collection of 20th-century Guatemalan art including works by well-known Guatemalan artists such as Carlos Mérida, Carlos Valente and Humberto Gavarito.

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  9. Museo Nacional de Historia

    The Museo Nacional de Historia is a jumble of historical relics with an emphasis on photography and portraits. Check the carefully manicured hairstyles of the 19th-century generals and politicos.

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  10. Museo Nacional de Historia Natural Jorge Ibarra

    This museum's main claim to fame is its large collection of dissected animals.

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  12. Museo Popol Vuh

    Museo Popol Vuh has well-displayed pre-Hispanic figurines, incense burners and burial urns, plus carved wooden masks and traditional textiles, fill several rooms. Other rooms hold colonial paintings and gilded wood and silver artifacts. A faithful copy of the Dresden Codex, one of the precious 'painted books' of the Maya, is among the most interesting pieces, and there's a colorful display of animals in Mayan art.

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  13. Palacio Nacional de la Cultura

    The imposing Palacio Nacional de la Cultura lies on the north side of the Parque Central. It was built as a presidential palace between 1936 and 1943 during the dictatorial rule of General Jorge Ubico at enormous cost to the lives of the prisoners who were forced to labor here. It's the third palace to stand on the site.

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  14. Railway Museum

    The Railway Museum is one of the city's more intriguing museums (and the only one with a Domino's Pizza attached). Documented here are the glory days of the troubled Guatemalan rail system, along with some quirky artifacts, like hand-drawn diagrams of derailments and a kitchen set up with items used in dining cars. You can go climbing around the passenger carriages, but not the locomotives. It's between 9a and 10a Avs.

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