Termez Archaeological museum as a spiritual and ducational place was built owing to the independence and personal project and initiative of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan I.A.Karimov on 2nd April 2002 on the eve of 2500th anniversary of the city. At present the funds of the museum preserve more than 85.000 exhibits, among which 3.000 are represented in exhibition halls. These exhibits speak about the history of the region from 100th millennium B.C. As a result of continuous archaeological excavations and scientific-research works being carried out in southern region, the number of museum exhibits is increasingly growing. If in 2002, 27247 exhibits were listed so in 2017 this number reached 85.880 pieces, 26374 of them belong to numismatics fund. 50.000 exhibits belong to the main fund and 1000 out of them are considered as unique museum relics of world significance. Such kind of rapid increase is reflected by intensive works of a lot of local and international archaeological expeditions. The most famous among them are: Bactrian archaeological expedition, Karatepa scientific-research expedition, Tokharistan complex research expedition and expeditions under the leadership of prominent archaeologists- historians of the world as Uzbek-Japanese, Uzbek-German, Uzbek-French, Uzbek-Russian, Uzbek-Spanish, Uzbek-Chinese, Uzbek-Korean and Uzbek-Czech. There is a scientific library in the museum with modern reading-hall and more than 17.000 volumes of rarest and valuable books including Natural and Technical Sciences, agriculture and forestry, Social-humanitarian disciplines, culture, philology, art, religious studies, philosophy and psychology published from XVIII c. up to present days, most of the publications mainly belong to archaeology, ethnography, numismatics, art and architecture. Moreover, there is a special equipped halls and exhibitions hall for performing precious metals and stones. Usually scientific exhibitions dedicated to the results of various archaeological researches carried out on the territory of Surkhandarya province, as well as a lot of art exhibitions of local artists devoted to different historical-cultural events take place in this hall. The gallery under the shed-aivan is located in the internal courtyard of the museum, where the samples of unique bases of columns of antique and Kushan period cultures are represented. For instance, ceramic pots of I-III cc A.D., ceramic water pipes I-X cc A.D., capital with the image of a lion I-III cc A.D., and marble gravestone covered with Islamic inscriptions XIV-XV cc A.D. According to the Decree №308 of November the 9th 2016 of Surkhandarya Province governor and with the purpose of eternalizing the name of a Japanese scientist and archaeologist K.Kjudzo, a new exhibition which was dedicated to his scientific activity and researches carried out on the territory of our region was opened. On 22 March 2017 personal exhibition called “Navruz Values” of Tokhir Shaymuradov, the member of Association of artists of Uzbekistan Academy of Arts and who works under the pseudonym Tohir Zamon was opened in Termez archaeological museum. During his official visit to Surkhandarya Province on 25th August 2009 the President of our country I.A.Karimov gave an idea of creating web-sites of the region and museum. At present a special room is reserved in Termez archaeological museum and works of equipping it is in progress. Moreover, the museum takes an active part in the international exhibitions held in the republic. For instance, in 2008 32 of local exhibits related to Buddhist culture were successfully represented in the museums of 8 cities of Japan. In average at about 50.000 people annually visit exhibition halls of the museum. At present time scientific cooperation between Termez Archaeological museum and some countries of the world are established (Rissho University-Japan, Karlova University-Czech Republic, Laboratory of Archaeology, Philology of the East and West-Paris, France). The cooperation is aimed in promoting the archaeological monuments of the Surkhan region by researching them and creating new exhibitions by enriching museum funds regularly. In 2007 a branch of research centre on studying archaeological site “Fayaztepa” was opened in Termez archaeological museum. With the collaboration of Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Uzbekistan with Representative office of the UNESCO in Uzbekistan and Japanese TRUST fund in 2002-2006 restoration works were carried out in Fayaztepa Buddhist monastery complex located on the territory of Old Termez and the centre for studying the history of Buddhism and its culture was built. On the basis of Decree №65 of April 23rd 2007 of Surkhandarya Province governor, Fayaztepa Buddhist monastery complex and the building of its established centre was transferred into the museum balance and functioned as a museum branch until 2012. Centre of studying history and culture of Buddhism consists of 8 rooms. As a result of bad weather and of severe precipitation, roofs of exhibition and laboratory rooms fell down and the building of the centre was in an emergency. According to the PR Decree №2349 of the first President of the Republic of Uzbekistan on 22 My 2015, as well as a lot of material cultural archaeological heritage of the country, the building of Fayoztepa centre of studying history and culture of Buddhism was renovated in 2016. At the moment the number of museum employees is 62 people. Among them: 1 person is a Doctor of Historical Sciences, 2 people are Candidates of Science, 3 people have Master’s Degree, 14 people have higher education, 13 people have Bachelor’s Degree and other 29 technical officers are with secondary specialized and secondary education. Particularly, senior scientific worker of the museum D.H.S. Sh.Shaydullayev, C.H.S. Z.Kholikhov and the director of the museum Z.Alimardanova have been participating in the scientific expeditions of the Art of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Old Termez and other areas of Surkhandarya Province. Results of the scientific researches, the information reflecting antique and modern history of our region are widely promoted by the official website of Termez archaeological museum; it is also being enriched with new information regularly. For the contribution to the development of Surkhandarya archaeology, the Director of Termez archaeological museum Alimardonova Z. and the senior scientific worker Sh.Shaydullayev were awarded with the breast badge “25 years of Independence of Uzbekistan”. According to the PR Decree №2349 of May 22nd 2015 of the first President of the Republic of Uzbekistan “About regional program of developing social sphere, road-traffic and engineering-communication infrastructures of Surkhandarya province in 2015-2017” from the 1st October 2015 till the 1st October of 2016 renovation and capital repairing works of Termez archaeological museum building was carried out. Old domes were changed to ornamented blue ones, carved ornamented wooden doors replaced the old ones, and columns were changed. Some changes were also made in the interiors. Air exchange system was also improved. Heating-cooling and signaling systems have been updated. 25 CCTV cameras were installed.
“Opening ceremony” of the museum building after capital repairing works took place on 10 October 2016. New image and created conveniences of the museum require more responsibility to the administration and employees of the museum and effects to the scientific researches and developing their scientific works.
