Many of the exhibits, which focus largely on archaeological finds, represent key pieces of Central Asian history and trump the copies in the National Museum. The 10 rooms come without great fanfare, but the QR codes allow useful levels of background to make contextual sense of the archaeological finds that you are looking at.
The star attraction is a 13m-long reclining Buddha, an original that was removed in 92 segments from Ajina Teppe in 1966. Dating from the Kushan era (about 500 CE), this is the largest Buddha statue in Central Asia. Other interesting pieces include figures buried with beads from the archaeological site in Sarazm (near Penjikent), bronze mountain goats fashioned as 5th-century BC throne fragments, and some beautiful carved ivory scabbards.
