Termez Archaeological Museum

The Termez Archaeological Museum houses over 27,000 artefacts drawn from the sites scattered across the Surkhandarya region, making it the essential first stop before visiting any of the outdoor sites. The collections cover the full sweep of Termez's history: Greek-Bactrian coins and pottery, Buddhist sculptures and murals from Fayaz Tepe and Kara Tepe, early Islamic ceramics, and material from the Kushan Empire period when this was one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Central Asia.

The museum is modern and well-designed by regional standards. Labels are in Uzbek and Russian, with some English. Hiring a guide who speaks English and can interpret the displays makes a considerable difference to how much you take away from the visit.

things to do museum
A story
When the museum opened in 2002, it was the first purpose-built archaeological museum in Central Asia. The Uzbek government invested significantly to give this southern frontier city a institution worthy of its extraordinary excavations. The timing was deliberate — the Taliban had just destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan, and Termez's Buddhist heritage suddenly seemed both more important and more fragile than before.