The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

The natural history museum is a must see if one lives remotely close to Los Angeles. I am so surprised that is even has taken me 4 years to have finally visited the place. The first thing that caught my eye as soon as entering the premises was the beautiful architecture of the museum. The outside of the building reminded me of an Alfred Waterhouse architect project.  It almost has a Neo-gothic/Romanesque style to its look. The museum takes you back in time from the microscopic to the gigantic, and from the bizarre to the beautiful. What also interested me was the fascination that young kids had around the whole museum, their eyes wide open into creatures that ruled the world before our time. One my favorites was the fairy pink armadillo, a quite funny and cute looking animal. It is a nocturnal animal that can grow up to 5 inches; it feeds off of worms, and certain roots. Its hard shell top finishes on the end as a Trojan helmet, which I found quite amusing. The second animal that I found fascinating was the Capybara. It is the largest rodent in the world, followed by the beaver, porcupine, and mara. Its closest relatives are guinea pigs and rock cavies, and it is more distantly related to the agouti, chinchillas, and the coypu. Native to South America, the capybara inhabits savannas and dense forests and lives near bodies of water. Today the Museum has about 5 million viewers a year. What I found great was the fact that it isn’t just a museum that collects and displays ancient artifacts of prehistoric animals, but the fact that they have activities that engages the public to interact.