Mayan Museum has a 15% Drop in Visitors
We recently published an article talking about why tourists are not coming to the Riviera Maya in the first quarter of 2025. This is the typical low season for the area, but as we mentioned in our article, there are signs that this year is markedly lower. There have been signs that tourism is slow and this is affecting businesses. This week the Museo Maya (Maya Museum) in the Hotel Zone of Cancun has seen a 15% drop in visitors. This drop has mostly been seen international guests.
In a brief interview, the director of the museum, Laura Rojo explained that currently the monthly influx is approximately 4,500 visits; however, she said that he is already working on a strategy to counteract these figures and recover the levels reached in other years.
Currently, the museum has a staff of 15 people from the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico (INAH), in addition to the personnel of the cleaning and security companies.
Why you Should Include a Visit to this Museum
It is sad to see some of the great institutions be affected by less people visiting them. Especially in the Riviera Maya where there are not a lot of great museums and cultural centers. The Museo Maya is a very good museum that offers an impressive collection of over 3,500 Maya artifacts, making it one of the most significant archaeological collections in Mexico Out of this collection, 350 artifacts are displayed at one time due to space. These items are rotated and there are also special exhibits plus you have access to the small ruins site of San Miguelito.
What You Can See at This Museum
The first exhibition room of the museum is dedicated to the archeology of Quintana Roo. It is a chronological tour beginning with the oldest burials found in submerged caves on the coast of Quintana Roo. The timeline continues up to the time when the Spanish conquistadors arrived on the peninsula. The artifacts reflect the development of the culture, the way people were buried, architectural elements, ritual items, and domestic objects used by the Maya of Quintana Roo over two thousand years of history.
The last thing in this room is a map of the conquest, the colonial era and the Caste War that took place during the nineteenth century.
The second exhibit at the Museo Maya
The second room shows:
- General aspects of the Mayan civilization.
- The Mayans relationship with the environment.
- The beginning, development and decline of their cities.
- Their economic activities, from agriculture to trade.
- The characteristics of the ruling class and the wars between them.
- Some of the most important cultural expressions such as writing and the calendar plus some of his rituals such as the ball game.
The pieces exhibited here come from excavations in Quintana Roo, as well as in the rest of the Mexican states that cover the Maya area: Tabasco, Yucatan, Campeche and Chiapas.
The last exhibit hall is dedicated to temporary exhibits relating to the Maya and Mexican culture. This can include things on loan from other museums around Mexico.
The Mayan ruins of San Miguelito
The small archeological site of San Miguelito (1250-1550 AD) sits on this property. Your entrance to the Museo Maya includes this. The walkway starts from below the museum and winds through gardens to see several settings of buildings.
These ruins are not extensive and hence not that well known. Mainly these were stone structures that had wood and palm roofs. It will take about 25 minutes to walk around.
This site was possible inhabited up until the arrival of the Spanish in the mid 1500’s.
Details for visiting the Maya Museum
Hours
Mondays- closed.
Tuesday-Sunday 9:00am-5:00pm. The last entrance is at 4:30pm but you should get there sooner since there is a lot to see in the museum.
Entrance price
100 pesos per person.
Official Website for the Museum
Services at the Museo Maya
- This is a handicap accessible space. There are elevators up to the exhibition halls and ramps.
- No bags are allowed in the museum. Free lockers are available.
- Bathrooms.
- Gift shop.
Where is the Museo Maya?
The museum located at km 16.5 in the Hotel Zone in Cancun. There is a small parking lot with free parking for the museum.
Learning more about the Maya culture
Cancun is at the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula which was a major part of the Maya area. Today this area is a living museum as well as having relics of the past that were left by the Mayas.
Once you get out of tourist areas you can come across modern day Mayas that speak a form of Mayan and many still dress in traditional styles. In some small communities you can see traditional Mayan houses built from local wood and palapa roofs.
Gran Museo Del Mundo Maya in Merida
If you want to learn more about the Maya, there is a great museum in Merida, Yucatan that is good to visit. It is called the Gran Museo Del Mundo Maya. It is a new modern museum that brings the history alive and all the way up to today. See our video below to lean a little more what to expect when visiting this museum.
Towns and cities to visit
There are towns like Valladolid, Merida and Tihosuco where you can experience the living Mayan culture and visit some museums. The Mundo Maya Museum in Merida is especially impressive. It ties together ancient history all the way up to today.
Mayan ruins to visit
Many people look to go to Chichen Itza Mayan ruins but there are dozens of other accessible sites to see. Some of them offer small museums and some you can climb to the top of the pyramids. One set of Mayan ruins is just down the road in the Hotel Zone. The name is El Rey Mayan ruins. See our full guide of Mayan ruins here.
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