Sights in Yakutsk
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Permafrost Institute
The world of global-warming activist watches goings on at places like Yakutsk’s Permafrost Institute, about 2km west of the centre. Buses 17 or 41 will get you nearby. It’s a real institute, but opens its 12m-deep icicle-filled basement (a lab in the frozen earth) to the public. The lab stays a constant -6°C (wrap up warmly, though there are usually coats around to use). A tour includes a short film. You’ll see 10,000-year-old deposits of vegetation (though some melted due to excess visitors in 2007). There’s also a model of a baby mammoth discovered on the Kolyma River in 1977 (the original was hauled off to St Petersburg’s Museum of Zoology).
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A
Regional Museum
A good place to delve deeper into Sakha culture, the Regional Museum packs nine rooms devoted to wildlife (including a 2900-year-old human skeleton), first Russian settlers, regional minerals, revolution, WWII and Soviet life. Outside there’s a huge whale skeleton found in 1961. The museum is actually located off pr Lenin (a wood sign across from Le Grand hotel points the way).
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B
National Art Museum
Try to look past the (tripled) foreigner admission price at the excellent new National Art Museum, as its three floors show off many local customs and much scenery, with huge oil paintings (of heroic train construction, the life-like pillars atop Mt Kisilyakha etc). English descriptions follow changing themes over the years.
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C
Archaeology & Ethnography Museum
All that permafrost in the area has resulted in some of the world’s best preserved mammoth skeletons. You can see some at the Archaeology & Ethnography Museum, with skeleton sketches comparing the hair and trunk of mammoths with those of elephants. It’s in one of the university buildings facing the canal.
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Museum Khomus
The unexpected (and unfortunately soundtrack-free) Museum Khomus has a collection showcasing international Jew’s harp heroes (including local guru Spiridon Shishigin) and old 45s; they sell a Sakha-made harp for R1700.
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Ugly Globe
In recent years Yakutsk has put up many monuments around town, but none more bile-raising than the controversial ‘message of love, ’ a grey, heart-stamped ugly globe Many locals hate it; we like it.
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Sokrovischnitsa
The Sokrovischnitsa is a secretive, heavily guarded collection of local diamonds, gold and other minerals and jewels. Access it around the corner, in the glass office building, from the Tygyn Darkhan hotel.
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D
Treasury Museum
Ask at a travel agent to see if you can visit the (often VIP only) repository of Sakha's amazing minerals and jewels at the Treasury Museum. Located behind the Hotel Tygyn Darkhan.
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