The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) might not be up there in terms of global name recognition, but it is Toronto’s and perhaps Canada’s best history and cultural museum. While it’s named after the province in which Toronto is located, the ROM houses a vast collection spanning the globe from Canada to Europe, Africa and Asia.
Even before you step inside the museum, you’ll be be fascinated by what looks like a giant futuristic spaceship protruding from the museum’s more traditional facade. That is the Michael Lee Chin Crystal, a multi-million dollar wing that houses exhibits and cafes and was built in the mid-2000s. The design was actually inspired by crystals in the museum’s collection.
Once inside, there are a lot of things to take in including Roman artifacts, African masks and weapons, Japanese samurai and Indian armour, and a Chinese hall featuring an actual ancient doorway and chariot. If you’re a fan of dinosaurs, there’s a very impressive prehistoric section which features many massive (and not so massive) dinosaur fossil skeletons as well as a mastodont (related to the mammoth) and giant woolly sloth. The skeletons include a menacing T-rex, a triceratops skull, and a stegosaurus.
The Canadian section is not that big (Canada being a relatively young country with a smallish population of 33 million), however the aboriginal exhibits feature some good displays such as a multi-storey wooden mask totem, aboriginal dress, and freight canoes. Canada is a vast country whose aboriginal peoples are found from the west coast to the central plains to the Arctic.
Like any self-respecting major museum, the ROM also features an Egyptian hall with tombs, wall paintings, and of course, mummies.
Besides the sheer range of exhibits, the ROM is also very spacious and the halls and exhibits are mostly spread out so the viewing experience is very comfortable. You won’t be jostling with crowds of people like at the Louvre or Vatican Museums.
