The Museum of Natural History in Kyiv.

The National Museum of Natural History at National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine – Wow! what a long, stern and official name – hides a place where ancient nature comes to life. It is quite easy to find in the very heart of Kyiv, on Bohdan Khmelnytskyi Street, in a beautiful antique mansion spotted by its sky-blue color. In fact, Museum of Natural History is not one museum but five: Geological, Paleontological, Zoological, Botanical and Archaeological. There are more than 30,000 exhibits in 24 halls covering an area of 8,000 m².

They reveal the origin, structure and geological evolution of the Earth; its plant and animal life; the history and culture of the tribes and peoples that lived in the ancient territory of Ukraine. The four rooms of the Archaeological Museum, is located on the ground floor. This museum boasts a collection of 7,000 exhibits (the oldest of them dating back at least 800,000 years) and some surviving relics of human activities from the Paleolithic site of Korolevo in Transcarpathia. Also, visitors can see unique artifacts from the famous ancient cultures of our country: Trypillian, Scythian, Cimmerian and Sarmatian. The 1st floor belongs to the Geological Museum whose collection of exhibits began in 1927. Here you can see amazing rocks and sparkling minerals of all shapes and sizes, fossil remains and fossil imprints of ancient plants. The 2nd floor is occupied by the Museum of Paleontology – a collection first begun in 1919. There are over one million separate items in the collection but there is only room to display just over 2,000 of them. The impressive reconstructed skeletons of fossil mammoths and other ancient animals makes this annex well worth a visit. The Zoological Museum located on the 3rd floor was also established in 1919. There are only two halls – mammals and birds – but they are really worth seeing! Visitors can view 5,000 exhibits belonging to 4,000 species. The Botanical Museum located on the 4th floor was inaugurated in 1921. There are five halls with many exhibits. The plants look completely alive, as if brought from their natural habitats just yesterday. This is a “trademark” of the museum: a unique method of drying and preservation developed by the staff which maintains their natural beauty. In summary, tens of thousands of different, interesting things to see here. Many, many fossils including entire skeletons of many extinct species, mineral samples, mammals, aquatic life, early humans, and modern taxidermy of many species. A wide ranging selection of exhibits from many categories representing nature in the round.

Lidiia Shokha

This article was published in the book Interesting Kyiv.
You could download this book in PDF file for free here.

© Sky Horse Publishing House (Kyiv) / Nahs Haus, 2019
Copying and publication of this article is possible only with the written permission of the publishing house.
Official website of the Awesome Heritage series: awesomeheritage.com

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