History Museum of Ho Chi Minh City, History museum in Ben Nghe Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
The History Museum of Ho Chi Minh City is a history museum in Ben Nghe Ward whose building combines Chinese and French architectural elements under a single roof. The exhibition areas are arranged in chronological order, taking visitors from the earliest periods of the region through to more recent times.
The building was erected in 1929 under the name Blanchard de la Brosse Museum and from the start was used to house archaeological finds from across the region. Through the 20th century the collection grew steadily as new discoveries from around the country were added to the holdings.
The collections bring together everyday objects, clothing, and instruments from many of the country's ethnic groups, which are rarely shown side by side in one place. Walking through the galleries, you can see how different the crafting traditions and daily habits were from one community to the next.
The museum sits in Ben Nghe Ward and is easy to reach from most central parts of the city on foot or by local transport. It is worth checking the opening days before you go and leaving enough time to move through all the rooms without rushing.
Among the collections is the mummified body of a woman who died in 1869, found in an area called Xom Cai and preserved by natural conditions in the soil. Her presence in the museum offers a rare, direct look at burial practices of that period in southern Vietnam.
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