Museum of Ancient Wonders

The Museum of Ancient Wonders in Cathedral City is a very pleasant surprise! The Palm Springs area has a variety of interesting museums. Modern art, in particular is very well represented from museum galleries to salesrooms of the area's numerous consignment stores. But the Museum of Ancient Wonders takes a different and valuable approach by looking at the human experience in the context of the vast sweep of history spanning life on Earth. It blends natural history, art, and culture in a very effective and engaging way that local students and many members of the public have probably never encountered. The experience starts in a very unassuming way. You find the museum tucked into a storefront location in a strip mall. Leave any initial misgivings behind and proceed on in. The storefront, while small, is bigger than it looks from outside. Inside, you will find a subset of their collections put upon display. Other collections that they have may be on tour to other museums or have been rotated into storage. When we were there, the exhibits included "Paleo: The Story of Life" as told by a fascinating assemblage of fossils and fossil casts. These were arranged in chronological sequence, starting with stromatolites, progressing through well over 100 examples of ever more complicated forms including trilobites, early reptiles, dinosaurs, early mamals, early homonids, leading to us. Another exhibit, "Behind the Mask" presents a small, diverse collection of African masks, explaining how they reflect ancient African traditions and mysticism, and even have influenced modern art far from the masks' sites of origin. The exhibit "All Under Heaven: Earth, Heaven and the Afterlife" featured a spectacular collection of Asian statuary from across the ages. A final exhibit, "Starscape" surrounded the other exhibits with photographs on the wall showcasing images of multiple bodies in our Solar System, nebulae, and galaxies, putting the content of the other exhibits in a broader context of both time and space. It's a wonderful idea. The Paleo exhibit looked to be relatively permanent within the storefront venue. I'm guessing some of the other exhibits might rotate in and out as these and other collections they have tour other venues. The good news is that they are working on moving into a much larger venue in the area that will allow them to exhibit all of their collections. I hope that happens! But until then, check out the Museum of Ancient Wonders in their current Cathedral City location.

We went to this museum based off of the highly rated Google maps reviews. we felt a little bit duped. When we first got there, we were surprised. It was in a shopping center next to a big lots. That was the first sign that we should not have gone. We decided because of all the reviews that we would go. It's $15 per adult. The first area was decent, had some nice big dinosaur bones. The problem is it's very, very small. Half the stuff in the reviews you don't see there anymore. There's not a lot to see. There's no outside area like the reviews show. I think we were the only ones there. You can see everything in about ten minutes. it's OK. For somebody who's really into this. But overall it's very small and didn't feel like it was worth it Instead of only then five or six dollars to enter.

This is a fantastic surprise in an unassuming shopping center. Great collection of ancient African masks, fossils, and ancient art/sculpture. Alberto is a world-class docent. Highly informative and well-designed exhibit that takes you on a journey through time and space. I hope next time we return, they have an even bigger and better location to showcase the rest of their collection and highlight the quality of their artifacts. Our entire family enjoyed the visit and highly recommend this great museum!

My family (grandparents, kids, grandkids) went to this wonderful unique museum and loved the experience. According to my 10 year old nephew, it was the best museum ever. Better than the Metropolitan museum, in his humble opinion. Alberto gave us an informative tour, and had great stories to share about every item in the exhibit. His breadth of knowledge and storytelling skills are truly engaging and we were all enthralled. It was super fun! There was everything from asteroid fragments to Buddhist sculptures; it does a great job of exploring the history of our earth. My nephew loved the stories of human evolution and loved Alberto's explanations of things we were seeing. Highly recommend!

When we drove up to the museum I joked to my husband that we can go to the museum and shop at Big Lots. I wasn’t sure of what to expect. Well we were pleasantly surprised! We were greeted by a very knowledgeable gentleman that gave us a brief yet informative summary of the items we were about to see. This museum is packed with wonderful artifacts with very detailed descriptions of each item. This museum is well worth the $15 and definitely deserves to be in a more appropriate, prominent area and not hidden away in a strip mall. This is a hidden treasure that should be enjoyed by all.