Top 10 Museums of the world-#3 Museum of Antropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera)

Museum #3. The Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera)

This museum is located in the center of Saint Petersburg, Russia.

The Museum is almost 300 years old and was founded to Peter’s the Great decree. Its purpose was to collect and examine natural and human curiosities and rarities. According to the museum there are over one million artifacts in their collections.

The Museum has the following collections:
Collections of the Culture and life of the people of the world

Anthropological Collections

Archaeological Collections

I visited the museum several times, it is very unique.

Collections of the Culture and Life of the people of the world includes:

• Australia, Oceania and Indonesia
• America

• Africa  
• East and Southeast Asia
• Eastern Slavs and Peoples of European Russia
• Europe 
• Caucasus
• Siberia  
• Central Asia
• South and Southwest Asia  

Archaeological collections

Archaeological collections is the oldest and largest in Russia. It contains unique materials related to prehistoric cultures of Europe, Asia and other continents.

Anthropological collections

Anthropological collections are among the world's largest : it has 762 collections – with nearly 380,000 items

Most of the visitors to the museum love to visit the following two exhibitions.

The first one is dedicated to the First Natural Science Collection of Kustcamera

The exhibition tells of the collection of the “Cabinet of naturalia” of the Kunstkamera and its exhibits in the 18th century.

In 1716, Peter the Great bought a collection for the museum from the Dutch chemist and collector Albert Seba. The Collection consist of exotic animals, fish, reptiles and insects, from all over the world. Only a small portion of that collection was preserved and is a part of the exhibition.

The second most popular exhibition is dedicated to First Astronomical observatory of the Academy of Sciences.

The exhibition recreates the workplace of an astronomer of the 18th century.

The large expandable telescope is one of the few surviving instruments of M.Lomonosov(famous Russian scientist, poet. Moscow State University is named after him). With this telescope he observerd the movement of Venus across the Sun i 1763.

When traveling in Russia the following museums are a must-see:

• Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography –Saint Petersburg
• The Hermitage Museum – Saint Petersburg
• The State Tretyakov Gallery - Moscow

If you have been to any museums in Russia, feel free to share your thoughts and experiences…