Minsk. Museum of Earth Science.

In the very heart of Minsk, at the Faculty of Geography and Geoinformatics of the Belarusian State University, there is a unique collection, which is rightfully considered the largest natural science museum in the country. This is a Museum of Earth Science, a place where time flows according to the laws of geology, and the history of our planet comes to life in stone. The museum was founded in 1934 as a cabinet of mineralogy and petrography, and it was based on the personal collection of Academician M. F. Bliodukho. However, the path to today's wealth was thorny: during the Great Patriotic War, the pre-war exposition was almost completely lost.

The museum's revival began in the post-war years thanks to the enthusiasm of scientists and the replenishment of funds from the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR and Moscow State University. It received its current name, the Museum of Earth Sciences, in 1974, and the updated exposition opened its doors to visitors in 1992.

Today, the museum's collections number more than 20 thousand exhibits. This is a real encyclopedia of the lithosphere, where you can trace the history of the development of life on Earth, see minerals in all their morphological and physical diversity and get acquainted with the petrographic collection of rocks. The paleontological department, which was opened in 2007 and contains about 7,000 specimens of ancient flora and fauna, deserves special attention.

One of the most valuable exhibits is an iron meteorite, estimated to be more than 6 billion years old - it is older than the Earth itself. In the museum you can see not only standard systematic collections, but also thematic collections: metal ores, quartz group minerals, corals and shells of the world, as well as samples illustrating the mineral resources of Belarus.

An interesting feature of the building is the "Geological Alley" on the floor of the second floor, lined with 27 varieties of rocks. Twice a year, the museum becomes a venue for the "Kamennaya Skazka" (Stone tale) exhibition and fair, where you can not only admire the original works of craftsmen, but also verify the authenticity of jewelry in a special laboratory.

The museum is open to visitors on weekdays and Saturdays, but it is not always easy to get into it: on normal days, there are training sessions for students of not only BSU, but also other universities, as well as for schoolchildren. But sometimes, for example, as part of the "Night of Museums" campaign, these doors open to everyone, revealing the wonderful world of stone, which holds secrets for billions of years.