National Museum and House of Culture
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The national Museum has SO much potential. As a history teacher I was underwhelmed, happy and low key embarassed by the place all at once. On a positive note impressed by their early man exhibition. Its a bit awkward have the U.S embassy bombing memorial in the complex as important as it is. It felt out of place at our national museum. An appropriate place for it would be the actual location of the former embassy. The staff at the museum are pretty rude and unprofessional which is not surprising for Dar. So dont expect qualified staff to help with you with anything. They seem like they’d rather be unemployed. The vehicle exhibition needs to be indoors as the salty ocean air is deteriorating the cars massively. I was horrified to say the least as those cars have incredible national value let alone a heafty price tag. The old museum building is one of my favorite buildings in the country was sad to see it in a state of neglect despite the Turks sponsoring its maintanance. This museum is suppose to be a relfection of how far we have come as a nation. And hope the government will prioritize and hire qualified designers and curators to bring this glorious place to its greatness. There are many qualofied Tanzanians that would help make this place a place of institutional memory and a reflection of the past to inspire future. My five stars are for the potential this great place has.
Jurassic ManJurassic Man
100
This is the worst museum I've ever been to. More than 2/3rds of it is empty. I don't know if they are renovating it but they should either close it or charge nothing. It costs $6 and they say they will only accept card payments. The few rooms that you can browse have small digital prints of President Nyerere meeting with African politicians in the 1960s with no real explanations about the significance and letters he wrote to President John F. Kennedy that are full of grammatical and wording issues. This is supposed to be the museum of culture and there is only one small room of bad, contemporary paintings. Local art shops have better works. There is a small hall about early human evolution and fossils but there are almost no bones or fossils shown. Don't bother going here. Tanzania is so rich in history and culture. They could have had an exhibit of the tribal clothing traditions throughout the country or the dark history of colonialism and independence but there is really no history or culture worth seeing here. I saw everything in less than an hour and wanted my money back at the end.
Nick GrimbergNick Grimberg
140
I was not sure what to expect but surprisingly, I had a wonderful time. It is a lot of cut outs but if you take one of the guides they offer (for a small extra fee of course), you will have a good time. I did not use the guide as I always feel rushed when I use them but I still had a good time getting glimpses of the history! There was an interior home sapien exhibit going on that I thought was interesting and could be fun for kids. The people were very welcoming and the only time I got a little frustrated was when the guard kept asking me for a ticket but I had paid cash and did not have one. I was just frustrated because I wanted to enjoy the exhibit without interruptions. He did invite me to join him for lunch which I respectfully declined as I was not quite hungry yet. All in all a very good local activity to enjoy and relax. Hopefully they get more art to showcase as some areas are still in renovation and some rooms were pretty empty. Buying tickets was easy. If paying in USD it costs about $6 and in Tanzanian shillings about TSHS 13000
Claudia N.Claudia N.
40
Typical low income museum. Lots of history on history Indian influence... A lot of restoration of the place can help and they should find some funds to restore the place. Sad thing is the Late Julius Nyereresncar collection was not in good restored pieces. The cars do need some restoration and can make it a good highlight for show pieces. The gift shop is kind of basic still advertising post cards and selling of stamps. Might just be a good traditional thing. Lord of good local story telling of people's culture could be introduced and get people to feel the vibe of Tanzania history which is rich. All in all atleast easily accessible. Lots of open space... They should consider to hire out open to events. Has lots of potential. Coming back to history .. i think the German, English governments can help a lot in bringing more artefacts and better quality of history around world wars 1 and maybe 2. A decent library but was too hot. Ac can help. Not at all busy when i went, walk in walk out kinf of thing. Modernization is highly overdue.
Mital ShahMital Shah
00
I must admit it was a bit embarrassing to visit the museum with a friend who was visiting ( local charges are 2500 foreigners 12,500, they take mobile money when we visited their network was down so they charged us an extra 1000!) The only note worthy exhibit was the cradle of man however most places lakes proper explanations the staff were quite unfriendly and plain rude it felt as though they were there against their wishes. There were lots of cobwebs and dust around most display cabinets. In some places it was really hot even the fans were switched off. In other exhibits there was a repetition of pictures. The museum is filled with newspaper clippings and pictures which can easily be viewed for free on Google. There is alot of maintainance work going on and hopefully that will bring some positive changes. It's a shame that we are a country filled with history and culture and yet our museum is in the state that it is
Sabrina Anver KarimSabrina Anver Karim
60
Interesting museum, with artifacts from pre-historic times as well as different periods from about 1000ad up to 1999. The museum looks at Kilwa, colonial history, independence, and then the Nyerere years. Most of the artifacts from the past 100 years are photos. Again, most of them focus on Nyerere. Lots of random photos from the pan-Africanist/liberation era. A few mentions of the Kagera war. It would be interesting to talk about Mkapa and Mwinyi. It would be interesting to frame different eras of the nation's history and what was going on around the country. Almost no mention of the over 120 ethnic groups and their cultures. Very little explanation of Ujamaa or evaluation of it. No discussions of the different development accomplishments, or of agriculture. It's a narrow focus. It is what is important to many, but overlooks so many aspects of history and culture in Tanzania.
Jeffrey RobinsonJeffrey Robinson
10
Nearby Attractions Of National Museum and House of Culture
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Basic Info
Address
5 Shaaban Robert St, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Map
Phone
+255 744 701 071
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Website
nmt.go.tz
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Reviews
Overview
4.3
(938 reviews)
Ratings & Description
cultural
family friendly
accessibility
attractions: Dar es Salaam Serena Hotel, Hyatt Regency Dar es Salaam, The Kilimanjaro, Golden Tulip Dar City Center, Holiday Inn Dar Es Salaam City Centre by IHG, Southern Sun Dar Es Salaam, Mzizima Fish Market (Soko la Samaki la Mzizima), Ferry, Askari Monument, St. Joseph Cathedral, KKKT Azania-Front-Cathedral, Air Tanzania Company Limited, restaurants: Akemi Revolving Restaurant, KFC Diamond Plaza, Marrybrown, The Alcove Restaurant, Orchid Café City Centre, City Square Restaurant, The Palm Restaurant, Baraza Grill, Café and Bar, Nul, Holiday Inn Roof Top Bar & Restaurant

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