Children's Museum of Indianapolis

Day 5: Children's Museum of Indianapolis

What a cool entrance to the museum!

If you're in Indianapolis, you've got to visit the children's museum. We happened to find some great coupons online which made it very affordable, but we certainly would have gotten our money's worth even if we had paid full price. There was just so much to do that a full day wasn't enough to take it all in. So we priortized and saw all that we could.

Link to the museum website here: http://www.childrensmuseum.org/

First stop...Dinosphere. Cretaceous Period. 65 million years ago.

This exhibit is impressive. It's one of the largest displays of real juvenile and family dinosaur fossils in the United States, and includes a functioning lab and hands-on activities for the kids.

A close-up view of a tiny dinosaur.

Second stop...Treasures of the Earth by National Geographic. It was an accidental discovery. In 1974 a group of Chinese farmers in danger of losing their crops to dry conditions, began digging a well. After digging 13 feet deep, the ground was still dry. A shovel struck something hard. And they discovered a human body made of baked clay!

An excavation of the site unearthed what many call the Eighth Wonder of the World. A full army of terra cotta warrirors of China's first emperor. Nearly 8,000 of them.

The exhibit shows how archaeologists unearthed and pieced back together the life-sized army, unraveling the mystery of the warriors. Each, individually sculpted, with unique facial features, hairstyles, and clothing details.

Although there is some debate about the origins of the Terra Cotta Warriors, most archaeologists believe they were created as part of a massive underground city for emperor Qin. To guard and protect him for eternity due to the proximity of his burial mound.

We explored two more Treasures of the Earth (the Tomb of the Ancient Egyptian and the Shipwreck of Captain William Kidd), but I I'll limit myself to this. And next time I'll share some pics from the LEGO Travel Adventure exhibit. I wasn't planning more than one entry on any single vacation stop. But clearly, the museum was a big hit!