Visit the Natal Museum

About Visit the Natal Museum

Trade in an afternoon playing with mini plastic dinosaur toys for an afternoon spent gazing at a life size models of Stegosaurus, Triceratops and the ruler of the Cretaceous period, T-Rex, at the Natal Museum one of South Africa's 'big 5' national museums. Stand under the tusks of the skeleton of the last Wild Elephant in KwaZulu Natal. Get a dentist's view of a Hippopotamus, staring into it's wide open pink jaw in the Mammal Hall.

Taxidermy displays bring to life tropical birds in a painted jungle and cheeky Chimpanzees swinging from branches. Living fossils of fish (Coelacanth) fascinate as does a marine display of sharks and life under the sea. Take a slow snail trail and marvel at the Mollusca Collection of tiny and gigantic slugs representing most land snail species of South Africa. Interpret stories of the desert from original San Rock Art displays of human figures, animal forms and magic. Appreciate authentic Zulu Pottery, brightly coloured bead art and hand craft admiring bronze treasures from Mapungupwe.

The museum is a meeting ground for national culture and natural history with 10 Cultural History and 8 Natural History Galleries. It has an impressive international reputation for unique displays, authentic artefacts, interesting collections, extensive research and field trips showcasing discovery samples and specimen. Travelling exhibitions keep the displays fresh with education on politics, relationships, arts and crafts.

Listen to the rhymes and rhythms of the South African youth at the museums monthly poetry readings of Knowledge of Self Society (KOSS), a local township poetry group. Housed in a 1905 national monument, the beautiful façade of this museum building just South of the Pietermaritzburg City Hall, is crawling with oversized cockroaches, spiders and ants -deliberately and by popular demand these larger than human, insect models add science and wonder to the colonial columns and carvings.