Any reason is a good reason to visit the renovated National Archaeology Museum, known as “MAN”, in Madrid after its many years of renovations to modernise it. The excuse can be its latest exhibit, ‘Within the confines of the Middle East. The modern discover of the region of Magan’ which you can visit from April 19th until May 29th.
The exhibition immerses us into the fascinating region of Magan thanks to the results of two decades of archaeological investigation. This is a discovery with barely any evidence but still with plenty of relevance, since its settlement from the Iron Age of which we barely had any remains of until now.
The exhibition is organised so you can learn about the settlement’s everyday lives which, despite its age, already had a series of technical means that are surprising for their time, such as a water channeling network, the first one built in the province of Oman, known as falaj.
There are indications of a civilization who lived there from the Lower Palaeolithic until the pre-Islamic era in the Seventh century and in the exhibition you can see many of its everyday objects, recovered thanks to the work of Spanish archaeological teams. Among them are the plans for Mleiha Palace and its ancient tomb, made with refined and curved lines worthy of Santiago Calatrava himself, yet it was made in the third millennium BC.
Also, the museum has its permanent collection which houses many different gems: mosaics from Roman-era Hispania, Egyptian bas-reliefs, the Middle Ages through its different civilizations and cultures and the famous sculpture of the Lady of Elche, a symbol of Iberian aristocracy from the Fifth century BC which has become the symbol of the museum.
Ticket prices are 3 euros for adults and 1.50 euros for concessions. Find out more details about your visit here.
