Page 671 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - USA

SAN DIEGO C OUNT Y  669

VISITORS’ CHECKLIST Exploring Balboa Park
Most of the park’s museums
Practical Information lie along the central El Prado,
San Diego Zoo Park Blvd, Laurel & 6th Sts. while some are located to the
entrance Visitor Center: Plaza de Panama. south. The pleasant grounds,
Tel (619) 239-0512. shady picnic groves, and traffic-
Open 9:30am–5pm daily. free promenades are usually
Closed Jan 1, Thanksgiving, Dec crowded with joggers, cyclists,
25. Spreckels Organ Pavilion free and street artists.
concerts Jun–Aug: 7:30pm Mon, The San Diego Museum of
2–3pm Sun. San Diego Zoo: Man, at the western end of El
Tel (619) 231-1515.
Open early Sep–late Jun: Prado, is an anthropological
9am–6pm daily; late Jun–early museum about the early history
Sep: 9am–9pm daily. & = 8 of mankind. Exhibits cover the
- ∑ sandiegozoo.org cultures of ancient Egypt and the
Mayans, and Native American
Transport crafts. Close by, the San Diego
@ 7.
Museum of Art’s large and
varied collection is boosted by
special exhibitions. It displays
. San Diego Zoo a vast range of European and
Orangutans are American art from 1300 to
among the 4,000 the 20th century, as well some
animals that inhabit fine exhibits from South Asia,
the enclosures Japan, and China.
of this world- The Timken Museum of Art,
famous zoo. lying east of the Museum of Art,
displays a world-class collection
of European masters such as
Frans Hals, Rembrandt, and
Paul Cézanne. It also has a
collection of Russian icons.
Farther east along El Prado,
the Natural History Museum
features a giant-screen 3-D
theater showing five screenings
of films that focus on the
biodiversity of Southern
California and the natural world.
The main attraction at the
Reuben H. Fleet Science Center,
just across the plaza, is the IMAX®
cinema in the Space Theater,
where films are projected onto
an enormous domed screen.
Botanical Building Laser and planetarium shows
Constructed from thin strips of redwood, are also staged here.
this shaded sanctuary is full of tropical Just north of the museums,
and subtropical plants. the San Diego Zoo is one of the
best in the world and is famous
for its conservation programs.
Spread over 100 acres (40 ha),
it houses 800 animal species in
enclosures designed to closely
KEY
resemble their natural habitat.
1 Spreckels Organ Pavilion 4 El Prado A 35-minute narrated bus tour
covers most of the zoo, while
2 Pan-American Plaza 5 Tour bus the aerial Skyfari ride offers an
3 San Diego Air & Space 6 San Diego Natural exciting trip across the south
Museum This A-12 Blackbird, History Museum of the park in gondola cars
built in 1962, is beside a museum 7 Reuben H. Fleet Science Center that run 180 ft (55 m) up. There
devoted to flight history. Over 60 is also a Children’s Zoo. The
aircraft are on display here. zoo is open in summer for
nocturnal exploration.

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