museums & galleries

The Maritime Museum of Denmark isn't your typical maritime museum. It takes a modern approach to telling the stories of commercial seafaring.

When sponge divers off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera in 1900 stumbled upon shipwreck, they had no idea they'd discovered the world's oldest computer.

Lisbon's national Maritime Museum pays homage to Portugal's proud maritime history from centuries ago.

Attached to the Igreja de São Roque, the Museu de São Roque displays artifacts related to the church's history, collections of the Jesuits, and other items.

Lisbon's Military Museum, housed in a 16th-century cannon foundry next to the Tagus River, showcases Portugal's important military history.

Sitting high above one of Mexico City's best green spaces is Chapultepec Castle. It sits on top of a hill that has been a sacred place for Aztecs and housed a military academy, imperial residence, and presidential home. Now, it's a museum.

Mexico City's impressive National Museum of Anthropology showcases the region's endlessly rich and diverse pre-Columbian cultural heritage.

Opened in late-2014, the Frank Gehry-designed Biomuseo focuses on Panama's biodiversity and how the isthmus of Panama has changed the world.

Behind that impressive facade, standing above most of the city of Granada, is the city's main museum. Its exhibits are rather eclectic, but many of them relate in some way to the history of Granada and the nearby region.

Reopened in a newly renovated space in the Crown Prince's apartments of Dolmabahce Palace, the National Palaces Painting Museum showcases the collection of paintings of the national palaces.


If I was picking a name for this museum, I wouldn't use the word "naval." Istanbul Maritime History Museum would be a better fit. Or better yet: Royal Water Taxi Museum. But what impressive water taxis they are!

Ferme du Caillou, next to the battlefield of Waterloo, is where Napoleon spent the night before the Battle of Waterloo. The next day, his empire was in tatters.

The Musical Instruments Museum in Brussels has a lot to see. But it has even more to hear.

Flemish art has a well-deserved reputation for its beauty. Some of the best is on display at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels.

Unsurprisingly, Vietnam takes its revolutionary foundations very much to heart. They're shown off and commemorated in the national Revolution Museum in central Hanoi.

This was British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's underground command bunker during some of the most dangerous days (and nights) of World War II.

Hagia Sophia is old. Very old. The building that currently stands on the first of Istanbul's famous seven hills dates back almost 1,500 years and has had a remarkable and colorful history. It's also a beautiful place to visit.

The Vietnam Military History Museum in central Hanoi celebrates the Vietnamese victories of the 20th century, first over the French and then the United States. And, of course, it presents a version sanctioned by the Vietnamese Communist Government.

The War Remnants Museum presents an important but one-sided history of the appalling legacy of the decades of war that have ravaged Vietnam.

This is not a place of sweetness and light. Hoa Lo Prison, better known in the west as "the Hanoi Hilton," was first a French colonial jail for Vietnamese political prisoners and later used during the Vietnam War for American pilots held as prisoners of war. And it's a place with an especially grim history.

The National Museum of the United States Air Force near Dayton, Ohio, is the largest and oldest air force museum in the world.

One of the world's most visited museums, the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum has an incredible array of original artifacts from the history of flight and space exploration.