The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology — the Penn Museum — is one of the finest archaeology museums in the Western hemisphere and among the most underrated institutions in Philadelphia. The collections were assembled through a century of Penn-funded expeditions, and the results are staggering: a 12-ton granite sphinx from the reign of Ramesses II in Egypt, a tomb chamber from the palace at Meydurn, and an extraordinary assemblage of objects from the Royal Cemetery at Ur — the Death Pit — including gold headdresses and lyres from 2500 BC.
The Mesopotamian galleries contain some of the oldest written documents on earth. The Native American galleries are among the most thoughtfully curated in the country, developed in close collaboration with contemporary Indigenous communities. The building itself — a Beaux-Arts complex from 1899 — is worth visiting on its own terms, with a great barrel-vaulted ceiling in the central rotunda that few visitors notice because they're looking at the objects. The museum is on Penn's campus in West Philadelphia, an easy subway or bus ride from Center City; the trip is emphatically worth it.