One of the largest museums in Russia, it was founded in 1889, and later moved to a special building designed in the style of ancient Egyptian temples.
The museum collection includes almost half a million exhibits, many of which are of world significance.The exhibition shows the history of Pre-Yenisey Siberia from the Jurassic period to the present day. The museum’s collections of archeology, ethnography and paleontology are of special value.
The collection of the museum contains the epistolary heritage of the Decembrists, works and memorabilia of the painter Vasily Surikov, writer Viktor Astafyev, singer Dmitry Hvorostovsky, and a collection of church antiquities. Every year the museum collection increases by several thousand depository items.