Museo Arqueologico del Camino Real, Hecelchakan

Set in a colonial building on the arcaded main plaza of Hecelchakan, this INAH museum holds the finest public collection of figurines from Jaina, the small island necropolis off the Campeche coast where the Maya elite were buried together with modelled clay portraits depicting warriors, weavers, ballplayers, dignitaries and deities in remarkable individualised detail. These figurines, prized by archaeologists and collectors alike for their artistry, form the museum's core holding and give visitors access to a body of material that is otherwise widely dispersed among collections outside the region. Further rooms extend beyond Jaina to cover the wider archaeology of the Camino Real, the historic overland corridor linking Campeche to Merida that the town of Hecelchakan sits astride, presenting ceramics, tools and other material recovered from sites along that route. The museum's setting inside a restored colonial building, rather than a purpose-built gallery, situates the collection within the town's own layered history, since the same corridor that carried ancient Maya trade later became the principal colonial and modern road between the two cities. Displays follow a broadly typological arrangement, grouping figurines by theme and Camino Real material by site of origin.