Central State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan
National history museum in a blue-domed 1985 building, with seven halls from fossils to independence.
The museum traces its origins to 1931, when collections were first displayed in a former cathedral in what was then Alma-Ata. Work on a purpose-built home ran from 1978 to 1985, producing a three-storey rectangular block carried on eight external pylons and crowned by a shallow blue dome. Marble, granite, shell rock and coloured metal were used throughout the interiors, and motifs from Kazakh applied art were worked into the detailing. The building stands in the Samal-1 district below the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau.
Displays are arranged across halls covering palaeontology and archaeology, historical ethnography, the Golden Horde period, the peoples of Kazakhstan and the modern republic. Exhibits include Saka and Scythian metalwork, nomadic weaponry, saddlery and jewellery, a full yurt reconstruction with its furnishings, manuscripts and material on twentieth-century political history. An Open Fund area allows visitors to see stored objects, and the museum operates the largest artefact restoration centre in the country alongside an anthropology section and temporary exhibition galleries.
Highlights
- Saka and Scythian gold, bronze and iron work from Kazakh steppe burials
- Full-size yurt reconstruction with carpets, chests and harness
- Open Fund display of objects normally held in storage
- National restoration centre and anthropology collection on site
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