NATIONAL MUSEUM

Set in a new building in the Amriguibe district, near the Voitures car park, the National Museum was opened with a large pump at the end of 2010. Although the collections, moved from the city centre to their new place of conservation and exposure, have remained virtually unchanged, the museology has evolved. It is organized into seven «pavilions» (Islamic heritage, prehistory, the archaeology of ancestral Art, History, Economics, Arts and Popular Traditions and Paleontology) distributed on two levels. The first floor of the building, bathed by the sun's rays and skeleton, is dedicated to paleontology. Rich in many explanatory signs, this pavilion exposes some of the major discoveries made during excavations by Chadian and foreign scientists: skull of a Nile crocodile dating back 7 million years, dentaire dental row (fossil equidae), skeleton of a Nile pole… In particular, the emphasis is placed here on the processes of fossilization, Chadian fossil Sites, such as those of Toros Menalla, where the skull of Toumaï, and Koro Toro was unearthed, where Abel's mandible was unearthed, the dating of the land, the presentation of the mega-lake Chad or the fauna and flora of these remote times… The highlight of the visit on this first floor is without doubt the copy of the skull of Toumaï, exhibited in an adjoining room that is exclusively devoted to it. The ground floor offers a diving in Chadian history, through dedicated explanatory cartridges that are dedicated to the introduction of Islam in Chad, which in the formation and operation of the kingdoms and sultanates (Kanem Bornou, Ouaddai, Baguirmi…), which to notabilités (like Rabah)… Many objects are exposed, thus a lôh, carved wooden slate for the learning of the Koran, a mouslaï, hide sheep tanned serving as prayer mats, an astonishing burial urn sao, a balafon or even ouagat, amulets attached to the camels to protect them from bad luck…