Samarkand State Museum of the History of Culture of Uzbekistan

About

The museum-reserve was established in 1982 by government decree and has since brought most of Samarkand's museum holdings under one roof.

It administers eight museums, six historic monuments and two shrines. The collections hold more than 211,000 objects, the staff numbers around 269 people including 56 researchers, and over 800,000 visitors pass through its sites each year, with more than twenty exhibitions staged annually.

The constituent museums include the State Museum of the Cultural History of Uzbekistan, the regional history museum, the museum of Samarkand's foundation at the Afrasiab site, the Mirzo Ulugbek museum complex, the Sadriddin Ayni house museum, and the local history museums of Kattakurgan, Ishtykhan and Pakhtachi.

Among the monuments in its care are the mausoleum of Amir Timur, the Bibi-Khanym congregational mosque, the Khazrat Khizr mosque, the Nadir Divan-Begi madrasah and the Khoja Doniyor mausoleum; the shrines are Khazrati Dovud, the al-Maturidi mausoleum and Chorchinor in Urgut.

Beyond its displays the reserve carries out research, restoration and publishing, and runs joint projects with museums abroad.