In 1941 , upon returning to Mexico from San Francisco for the second time, Diego Rivera asked architect Juan O’ Gorman to design for him a building that fused Mexican modernitu and pre-Columbian legacy,It was to be constructed in an area covered by volcanic rocks – Pedregal de Coyoacán- which resulted from lava spewed by the Xitle volcano many centuries earlir. Thus was the Anahuacalli -or House of the Anahuac – born, providing a space to showcase the Maestro’s magnificent collection of Mesoamerican art.

Resembling a huge pre-Hispanic teocalli (temple), the building evokes the four elements through major pre-Hispanic deities: Tláloc (water), huehuetéotl (fire), Chicomecóatl (earth) and Ehécatl (wind). Throughout its twenty-four halls, the museum guards and permanently exhibits more than twothousand items representative of grat Mesoamerican civilizations. It also displays a number of sketches for some of Rivera’s most important murals, including Pesadilla de Guerra, sueño de paz (Nightmare of War, Dream of Peace). The museum grounds encompass an ecological reserve for the area’s native flora.