Museum der Kulturen is an ethnological museum situated in Basel, Switzerland. It is located on the Cathedral Hill in Basel. Museum der Kulturen is the largest ethnological museum with a collection of more than 3 million articles and objects, which trace the evolution of man and the ethnicity of the population. The museum also contains photographs of olden times.
History of the Museum
The Museum der Kulturen was established in 1849. The Basel population is an adventurous one and hence they brought lot of objects whenever they went out on a voyage. The museum possesses a collection of all those objects imported by the people in Basel. Scientists, travelers and merchants often went out on journeys and brought these articles which are stored in the museum. The museum had been conducting its own expeditions to collect objects for display from 20th century.
Collection of the Museum
The Museum has a wide range of collection of ethnological objects. Numerous expeditions have resulted in the accumulation of those products belonging to various countries and various time periods. The museum houses 3000000 objects for display. The ruins of Egyptian civilization have been collected by travelers like Fritz Sarasin and Paul Sarasin. Even the remains of ancient Europe, Asia and America feature in the collection of the museum. All these articles have been gathered through exchange programs and excavation works. The most striking object is the 10 m high cult house of Abelam from Papua.
Exhibitions
Exhibitions are held in the museum from time to time for the visitors. Exhibitions could be permanent ones like the exhibition on Egyptian Pyramids and Pile Dwellings and temporary ones like the one recently being held at the museum called the Red on Green exhibition.
At the moment the museum is undergoing an extensive renovation.
Museum Timings
The museum remains open for 6 days a week except for Mondays from 10 in the morning to 5 in the evening.
