Besides the standard "places to see", the scientifically minded
tourist might definitely want to have a look at the Senckenberg
Museum, one of the largest museums of natural history in Europe.
It is run by the Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft
and named after Johann Christian Senckenberg, a Frankfurt
physician whose 300th birthday is celebrated this year. On
display in the museum are for example the unique, 50 million
year old fossils from the nearby Messel pit, but kids will
probably be most fascinated by the skeletons of dinosaurs and
mastodons - and by the true-to-life replicas of a Tyrannosaurus
and a Diplodocus in the front yard of the museum. If you're
standing in front of the museum , you will notice to the left a
building with a small astronomical observatory on the roof -
this is the home of the Physikalischer Verein, the "Physical
Association". Both the Senckenbergische Naturforschende
Gesellschaft and the Physikalischer Verein have quite an
interesting history: They have been founded in