Museo de Arqueologia Maya, Fuerte de San Miguel

Occupying the casemates of the 1801 Fuerte de San Miguel on a hill above the city, the Museo de Arqueologia Maya is the state's flagship archaeology collection, tracing Maya civilisation in Campeche from the Preclassic period through to the Spanish conquest. Its galleries are organised broadly by period and site of origin, moving visitors from early ceramics through to the material culture of the Classic-period city-states that dominated the region. The centrepieces are the jade mosaic funerary masks recovered from royal tombs at Calakmul, assembled from dozens of individually cut jade pieces to cover the faces of deceased rulers, alongside the modelled ceramic figurines recovered from the island necropolis of Jaina, prized for their detailed depiction of Maya dress, status and daily life. Further rooms display stelae, stucco masks and burial goods gathered from Edzna and the Rio Bec cities, giving the museum the broadest geographic range of any archaeology collection in the state. The fort's vaulted casemates themselves, with their thick limestone walls and gun embrasures, form part of the visitor experience, since the museum has adapted rather than replaced the original 1801 military architecture. Restoration in the late 20th century converted the fort's interior for museum use while preserving its moat, drawbridge and exterior profile.