Which museums are worth visiting in Almaty

Almaty is the cultural capital of Kazakhstan, the cradle of the country’s independence, and a place where some of the most significant events of the republic’s history unfolded and continue to occur. The city museums help tourists learn about art, archaeology, ethnography, and many other aspects of life in the country and region, allowing them to plunge into the past and look at the present from a different perspective.

The Central State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan

This museum is one of the oldest and largest museums not only in Kazakhstan but also in the entire Central Asian region. The museum collection has more than 300,000 units of storage. Among the most remarkable artifacts are a copy of the Golden Man from Issyk’s mound, unique ancient gold items from the Kargaly and Zhalaulinsky treasures, and samples of nomad weapons from the Saka period.

There are seven main halls with different themes: the paleontological past, ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary history, and the cultural heritage of Kazakhstan. Every year in May, on International Museum Day, the eldest curator of relics participates in the "Night at the Museum" event, and admission is free.

Almaty Museum

The Museum of the History of the City of Almaty is located in the former meeting of the Vernensky orphanage. The museum's exposition includes 40 thousand exhibits. For convenience, they are divided into 11 eras: "Ancient history of Almaty", "Medieval history of Almaty", "At the origins of Kazakh statehood", "Ethnography of Zhetysu", "Vernensky period of the history of Almaty", "Almaty in the 20th century", "Development of culture and art", "History of mountaineering", "Zheltoksan", "Almaty and the leadership of the nation", "Model of peace and agreement". In the museum you can see projections of historical videos and rare artifacts in the form of holograms.

A. Kasteyev State Museum of Arts

It is the largest art museum in the country. The collection includes works by artists from Kazakhstan, as well as from Europe and Asia, covering past eras and the present. The number of exhibits exceeds 25,000 units. The dominant part of the collection, of course, is occupied by paintings by the famous artist Abylkhan Kasteev, such as "Turksib", "Aksai Quarry", "Amangeldy Detachment", or a unique portrait of the Kazakh writer Abai in his youth. At the same time, Russian and European paintings are also well-represented. Plus, this museum is unique in that there is a collection of graphic works in various techniques, such as etching, linocut, and lithography, as well as a sculpture collection. Exhibitions are often held in an interactive format, which is especially popular with young visitors.

Museum of Folk Musical Instruments, named after Ykhlas

This museum is one of the best places in Almaty, here you can get acquainted with Kazakh national music. Under the sounds of Kazakh melodies, tourists learn the history of music from ancient times and admire the legendary instruments of Kazakh musicians and instruments of different nations of the world. More than 1300 exhibits are stored here. But the Kazakhs have the finest collection: noise instruments (tuyaktas, zyryldauk, sakpan, shartyldauyk, tokyldak, konyrau), percussion instruments (dabyl, daulpaz, shundaul, shyn), string instruments (dombra, zhetygen, kobyz), wind instruments (syrna, sybyzgy, kerney, jelbuaz) and a lamellophone instrument (shangqobyz).

Zhambyl Zhabaev’s museum complex

Here lived the legendary Kazakh akyn, who composed hundreds of lyrical, domestic, social, and satirical songs, heroic poems, and fairytales. Thanks to the efforts of the caretakers, many things that belonged to the outstanding akyn were preserved. Also, Zhambyl’s car, the GAZ M, designed in the image of a Ford Model B, is well-stored in the garage. The government gave it to akyn for his 75th birthday.

Museum-houses of Kazakh writers Mukhtar Auezov, Sabit Mukanov, Gabit Musrepov, and politicians Akhmet Baitursynov and Dinmukhamed Kunaev deserve special attention. The last one contains more than three thousand exhibits from different eras of the life of the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the KazSSR.