The yurt-shaped Presidential Cultural Centre houses an excellent museum whose highlight is the 2nd floor, with outstanding collections of Kazakh jewellery and ‘gold and gold-makings’. These include gold jewellery and replicas from the Scythian burial mounds at Berel and the Issyk burial mound (where the Golden Man was found), replicas of the Golden Man and the ‘second Golden Man’ from western Kazakhstan, a bejewelled replica of a horse from the Berel tomb, and real 4th-century-BC horse innards pickled in formaldehyde!
The ground floor holds models of Astana buildings and a room of traditional Kazakh items: a brightly decked yurt, colourful carpets, crafts and costumes, elaborate horse tackle. The 3rd floor covers Kazakhstan from the 15th to 20th centuries.
