Attracting approximately one million visitors annually, The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is the fifth largest museum in North America, according to Wikipedia. Located in downtown Toronto almost within the compound of The University of Toronto, it is said to be walking distance from the CN tower but I will definitely not do that – not even on spring time. It is about a 3 to 4 kilometers walk if you take University Avenue. Since 2004, the museum is undergoing a massive multi million renovation and will be completed by Fall of 2007.

The museum is home to 6 million museum pieces and is housed in two permanent galleries – the World and Natural History.

The Department of World Cultures is the amalgamation of the former departments of West Asian, Far Eastern, Egyptian, Textiles, European, Greek and Roman, Canadiana, New World Archaeology, and Ethnology. Our curators actively conduct research in these areas as art historians, archaeologists and material culture specialists. The diversity of their work is reflected in a wide variety of objects to be found in our collections, ranging from Stone Age implements from China and Africa, the arms and armours from Europe, Middle East and Japan, kayaks and costumes of Canada’s First Peoples, ceramics from ancient Peru, sculptures from Southeast Asia and mummies from Egypt, to 20th-century art and design.

The Department of Natural History is comprised of 12 collection and research areas: Botany, Entomology, Herpetology, Ichthyology, Invertebrate Zoology, Mammalogy, Mycology, Ornithology, Invertebrate Palaeontology, Vertebrate Palaeontology, Geology, and Mineralogy.

Perhaps the most controversial artifact ever displayed here was the James Ossuary with the Aramaic inscription “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus”. The ossuary was displayed here last 2002 and was scrutinized by experts and was even featured by Discovery Channel and later on appeared on PBS and other networks. After its brief display at The ROM it was sent back to Israel in 2003 and was seized by the Israel Antiquities Authority to be later declared as a fake. The authenticity of the ossuary is very important since it will be the first ever physical link and the earliest recorded reference to Jesus of Nazareth.

Read about the forgery claim by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the ROM’s refusal to retract its earlier claim of authenticity.

If you are planning to visit this place I suggest you push it back if you can until the reno is over. Or, if you also don’t want to spend any money, you can go there at 5PM where the museum entrance is free. It closes at 6PM so you have an hour to explore but it will be impossible to see all galleries in one hour so you have to come back in the next few days to see them all. We weren't able to see all the galleries and so we will come back to visit again some other time.



Next CityPass destination - Art Gallery of Ontario