Pandora's Box

The beautiful thing about travelling is the intensity with which you can immerse yourself in a place.

The magnifying glass through which you can look at it.

Especially when travelling far from home, it is fascinating to discover what else is, or once was, there.

As a German and a European, I know little about Mexico. The country in which I am writing these lines.

Mexico is a country that receives little attention in our news coverage or public consciousness. You might still have heard of Tenochtitlan, the magnificent city of the Aztecs, or of the Maya in the south of what is now Mexico. But when it comes to Mexico's pre-Hispanic history, my knowledge quickly begins to run thin.

So it was rather convenient that I had heard about a good museum in the west of the city where I could learn a little more.

I jumped on the metro, where I nearly ended up in one of the women-only carriages after having to let three trains pass before there was finally room for me. But at a fare of 25 cents, one should probably not make too many demands regarding comfort. The only thing included in abundance was crowding.

I still arrived early, and there were only a handful of visitors on the grounds. The museum, or more precisely the National Museum of Anthropology, was a complex divided into geographical regions. The moment I entered the first hall, dedicated to the peoples of the north, I realised that I knew almost nothing, and probably less than I thought.

The museum also offers an impressive level of depth, should you want it, although good Spanish is essential. Only a few of the explanations are available in English. In return, there is plenty to discover, from the Olmec cabezas colosales on the Gulf Coast to the arrival of Cortés and the fall of Tenochtitlan in 1521.

There is also a section on how these communities live today, showing their customs, clothing and celebrations. Much of it was alive with vibrant colours, alongside the skull motifs so characteristic of Mexico.

Overall, visiting the museum felt like entering an entirely new world. One containing so much that was new and unfamiliar that it felt like opening Pandora's box, only without the dread. The real danger was how much time one could lose to everything inside it.