• The national museum Aldan-Maadyr

The national museum Aldan-Maadyr

The museum starts its history in 1924 when the remains of ancient iron domes were found in Podhrebtinsky district. The first exhibits of the museum were gathered by the participants of a region studies society organized in 1925. It were manuscripts, ancient objects, photos etc. The museum was opened for public in 1930. The head of the museum's project was Vladimir Ermolaev. Some parts of the precious collection were given to the museum by the Hermitage and by the Russian museum.

In 1942 the museum got the national status and was given the name "Aldan-Maadyr" or "The 60 warriors".

There are 5 departments in the museum now: nature, history, pre-revolutionary Tuva, People's Republic of Tuva, soviet Tuva and funds.

The museum's collection includes unique exhibits such as the original of the first tuvinian ABC book, meteorite fragment, a collection of ancient shamans' belongings, a Buddhist collection, golden and bronze plates, jewellery, the larch model of a burial mound Arjaan, ancient tuvinian ethnographic collection (musical instruments, instruments of labor etc) and a collection of tuvinian stonecutters.

The pearl of the museum's collection is of course objects from the burial mound Arjaan  II. The excavations of this burial mound were carried out in 2000-2003 by the specialists of the Hermitage and the German archaeological institute. These archaeological findings (more than 20 kg of golden objects) became a real sensation in archaeological world. In 2008 famous "Scythian gold" was returned to Tuva from European exhibitions. To protect the collection of the museum the special equipment was bought for the exhibition hall.

There are 76 528 objects in the collection.