The History Museum is a must-visit for anyone looking for a primer on the history of Turkestan from its earliest settlements 5000 years ago to the present. The 2nd floor has some fine Zoroastrian and Buddhist artefacts, including several 1st- to 3rd-century Buddhas and Buddha fragments from Fayoz-Tepe area near Termiz.
On the 3rd floor English placards walk you through the Russian conquests of the khanates and emirates, and there are some foreboding newspaper clippings of revolts in Andijon being brutally suppressed by the Russians in 1915. On the 4th floor you’ll also find the normal ode to post-independence gas plants and first President Karimov.