Shanghai Museum is set to launch the world's largest exhibition of ancient American civilizations in July.

Titled On Top of the World Tree: Ancient Civilizations of the Americas, the exhibition will feature more than 1,000 artifacts from the Americas and aims to be the most comprehensive presentation of ancient American civilizations to date.

The exhibition will not focus on a single civilization. Instead, it offers a panoramic view of the civilizational landscape of the Americas — from the Olmec along the Gulf of Mexico to the Maya city-states deep in the rainforests; from Teotihuacan, known as the "birthplace of the gods", to the Aztec Empire, and further to the ancient Peruvian civilizations shaped by the Andes Mountains and the later Inca Empire.

Through the exhibition, visitors can gain insight into how ancient peoples of the Americas understood the cosmos, as well as their social order and belief systems.

Chu Xiaobo, director of Shanghai Museum, said the exhibition of ancient American civilizations will also help strengthen ties between China and Latin America by promoting mutual understanding.

The exhibition follows the museum's recent blockbuster, On Top of the Pyramid: The Civilization of Ancient Egypt.

That exhibition attracted more than 2.77 million visitors, about 70 percent of whom came from outside Shanghai.

Source: Jiefang Daily