Chile Guide
Santiago
Museo Nacional de Historia Natural
Opening time: Tues– Sat 10am–5.30pm, Sun April– Aug noon–5.30pm, Sept– March 11am–6.30pm
Price: CH$600
Telephone: 6804600
Website: www.mnhn.cl
Address: Near the entrance of Parque Quinta Normal, on Matucana
Founded in 1830 and occupying its present building since 1875 (a grand, Neoclassical structure), this is the oldest natural history museum in Latin America and still one of the most important. It's worth a visit for the colossal skeleton of a blue whale mounted in the vast entrance hall, and for the notable Easter Island collection on the second level, featuring a moai, an upturned topknot or hat, and the famous Santiago Staff, inscribed with the mysterious, undeciphered rongo rongo script. Otherwise, a lack of funds has forced the museum to concentrate more on its role as an academic centre than as a place to inform and entertain the public, and the remaining displays amount to moth-eaten dioramas of Chilean landscapes and a roomful of stuffed birds.