Filling three distinct buildings, the countless halls crammed with local taxidermy, Bronze and Iron Age finds, Tuvan and Khakass standing stones, traditional stringed instruments and shaggy shaman costumes just keep on coming at this admirable repository of the region’s past. Away from the obvious prehistoric highlights, more off-beat exhibitions look at the construction of 1970s new Minusinsk and ethnic minorities from Europe that colonised Khakassia in the 19th century.
Allow around two hours to see everything and don’t even think of veering off from the prescribed tour route. The museum has two other small branches in town, the Decembrist Museum and Krzyzanovsky & Starkov Flat Museum.
