San Diego Museum of Man

 

1350 El Prado

San Diego, California 92101

Admission: $6 for adults; $3 for children 6 to 17; children

under 6, free ; $5 for seniors. Open year round; closed Christmas, New Year's Day, and Thanksgiving.

The Museum of Man is found in Balboa Park near the west entrance off of 6th Avenue, located in the historic California Building -look for the soaring Spanish bell tower.

The San Diego Museum of Man possesses a permanent collection of Egyptian antiquities called "Life and Death on the Nile", which is housed in a separate area of the museum which leads to a children's hall of discovery.

With the exception of a single borrowed mummy and case, the majority of the objects are small, acquired from private collections and by donor gifts. These are not particularly dazzling pieces, but collectively they provide a very pleasant way to spend thirty or forty minutes examining bits and pieces of ancient Egypt. A turquoise and lime-green tile from Amarna, a decorated shrine box, ushabtis, and a number of faience amulets are a few of the objects on display. Several small bronzes are in the last case before entering the Children's Discovery Center with its "Time Travel to Ancient Egypt" program where lucky young ones get to make their own scarabs, play with Egyptian-themed rubber stamps, wear a nemyss headdress, and put together a large three-dimensional pyramid puzzle. (It's an excellent idea to bring along a child so that you may also play with these things yourself without attracting too much attention!)

At the entrance, there are a few cases of exhibit-related items for

sale. The adjacent gift shop offers several shelves of Egyptian books

for both adults and children, including some harder-to-find scholarly

titles. They also offer various inexpensive Egyptian gewgaws including

jewelry, greeting cards, bookmarks, scarabs, and statuettes.

A Short Tour of San Diego Egyptomania:

San Diego went through a post-Tut "Egyptomania" period which resulted in the erection of several Egyptianized buildings in the 1920s and early 30s. A few of these are conveniently located near Balboa Park where the Museum resides. To see them, exit the park area by taking Park Avenue going north from Balboa Park.  On the right (East) side of the 3800 block, look for the Nile Apartments building with its brightly painted Pharaonic heads combined with Alexandria-style arches. 

Across the street is an Egyptian-themed bungalow court with winged solar disks, a wounded architectural victim of near-destruction by a sledgehammering landlord followed by an incomplete restoration. Originally, the stubby rounded columns framing the coutryard were also adorned with detailed images of

the Egyptian gods and goddesses. Continue on to see the now-closed Park Theater near the corner of Park and University, built in the shape of a huge pylon gate, again with the winged solar disk adorning it. Finally, continue on Park to Adams Avenue, where the two-story building housing The Lancers bar has a mildly Egyptianized coved roof.