State Museum of Nature of Uzbekistan

The Uzbekistan State Museum of Nature (Tabiat muzeyi) is the oldest museum operating in Uzbekistan. The museum's main purpose is to show the natural beauty of Uzbekistan and to help protect its environment. The museum features chronologically-ordered exhibits and seeks to educate visitors about Uzbekistan's geography through time.

Contents
The Museum consists of about four hundred thousand specimens and artefacts that are on display. Three hundred thousand items are insects. Eleven thousand are herbarium leaves and other zoological and geological materials. The museum is visited mainly by Uzbeks and visitors from formerly-Soviet Union countries.

The four areas in the museum are geological-geographic department, flora and fauna department, scientific department and funds department.

The museum organizes many social events in Tashkent, including assemblies in many of the Republic's schools, academic lyceums, colleges and higher education facilities.

History
The Museum is the oldest in Uzbekistan. It was established in Tashkent by Russian scientists on July 12, 1876, as the Tashkent Museum. The museum closed and re-opened several times. In 1919, it opened as Turkestan National Museum. Two years later, in 1921, it became The State Museum of Nature of Uzbekistan. In 1930, the museum joined with the agricultural museum and became the "Central Asian Museum of Nature and Building Power". Five years later the museum took its current name. In 1937, the museum opened a classroom for students to receive lectures on Uzbekistan nature.

The museum has received many government awards for its contribution to the development of the academic sphere in Uzbekistan. In 1967, the museum was awarded "Uzbekistan's Best Museum". In 2006, the museum celebrated its 130-year anniversary.