Research Museum-Laboratory of Samarkand State University

About

The museum-laboratory was established by a decision of the Academic Council of Samarkand State University in November 2012 on the basis of the former Alisher Navoi Museum; the new exposition opened on 8 September 2014.

The building has two floors, with a total area of 800 m², of which 400 m² are given over to the exposition. On the ground floor there is a lecture hall seating fifty, an exhibition hall, a storage facility for more than 5000 items, a computer classroom and staff offices.

The exposition is divided into five parts. The first is devoted to the life and work of Alisher Navoi. The second — to the history of education and its role in world civilisation. The third and fourth tell how the first university in the republic appeared in Samarkand at the beginning of the 20th century, how local scholarly schools took shape and what role the university played in training specialists. The fifth brings the story up to our days.

A separate thread is continuity: the university traces its lineage from the Mirzo Ulugbek Madrasah and his observatory, one of the first academies of the medieval East, which for five centuries trained scholars for the entire region.

The museum also works as a teaching laboratory: students and master's students study here, Navoi scholars, historians of education and museologists are trained, and practical seminars are held. More than 3000 visitors pass through it each year, over a hundred guided tours are given and more than twenty conferences, round tables and master classes are held. Together with the Pushkin Regional Library Centre, the multimedia programmes «Alisher Navoi» and «Mirzo Ulugbek» were created here.