Museo Popol Vuh

Next door to Museo Ixchel [1] and also on the university campus is the similarly high-caliber Museo Popol Vuh (tel. 2361-2301, www.popolvuh.ufm.edu.gt [2], 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Mon.–Fri., 9 a.m.–1 p.m. Sat., $3.50 adults, $2 students). Started in 1978 from a university donation by private collectors, it has been in its current location since 1997.

The museum houses an impressive collection from Guatemala’s archaeological record grouped in different rooms denoted by Preclassic, Classic, Postclassic, and Colonial times.

The highlight is in the Postclassic room with a replica of the Dresden Codex, one of only three Mayan books to survive their postconquest burning by the Spanish (the other two are the Paris Codex and the Madrid Codex).