Bagan Archaeological Museum is situated within old Bagan to the south-west and is close to the southern ancient city wall. The construction of the present new museum building was begun in 1995 and it was completed in 1998. In 1902, Mr. Taw Sein Kho, Superintendent of the former Epigraphic Office, which is now called Department of Archaeology, built a museum building to the north of Ananda Temple, in which stone inscriptions and archaeological objects collected around Bagan were displayed. It was opened in 1904. It was a small museum and display was not systematic, for it looked as though the collections were just piled up in a storehouse. Besides, within 60 years of its existence, the museum had acquired an abundance of artifacts and antiquities which it could no longer accommodate under its shelter. On a site of 8.16 acres to the south of Gawdawpalin Temple within old Bagan, a modern museum was built and opened on lst October 1979. It was a complex of four buildings an octagonal structure in which ancient artistic objects were displayed and three sheds where stone inscriptions, stone sculptures and other archaeological finds of large size were exhibited. Early in 1995, three sheds were demolished but the octagonal structure was left intact. A new magnificent world class museum was constructed on 17th April 1998, it was inaugurated. This new museum is a double storeyed building not only grand and imposing but also adorned inside and outside with Myanmar decorative arts-stucco, wood carving, floral design, Shwesawa lacquer work and tapestry. In 2017, the Children’s Museum was opened at an octagonal shaped building to the north of the present museum.