The Simon Janashia National Museum of Georgia is located at Shota Rustaveli Avenue, 3. The most valuable artifacts found during excavations in different regions of Georgia are stored here, as well as an ethnographic exposition.
In addition to the main building in Tbilisi, the National Museum of Georgia includes other museums located in different cities of Georgia. The museum dedicated to the history of Georgia was established in 1852. During the riots of 1990-92, the museum building and museum collections were damaged. Now only part of the expositions are working in the historical building of the National Museum of Georgia.
The main value of the National Museum of Georgia is the Treasury, where the most valuable gold and precious artifacts are stored, as well as exhibits of historical and cultural value. There are stones with inscriptions from the era of the Kingdom of Urartu, a large collection of ancient coins of states that were in Transcaucasia. Of particular interest are gold jewelry from a Treasure found in 1908 near the village of Akhalgori, in South Ossetia. It presents a lot of jewelry from the 5th century BC era, made by local craftsmen.
Artifacts found during excavations in the vicinity of Kutaisi, on the site of ancient Colchis, are also very important. The gold and bronze figures that archaeologists found during the excavations of Colchian cities date back to the 5th-6th millennium BC. The art of Ancient Colchis is a mixture of the cultures of Ancient Greece and Persia. For a long time, the existence of the Colchian Kingdom was questioned, but excavations near Kutaisi confirmed the hypotheses of the existence of this legendary kingdom.
Several halls are dedicated to ethnography, folk costumes of Georgia, pottery, which developed together with winemaking. In addition, here you can see collections of edged weapons and rifles of the 19th century. A large exposition is devoted to finds from the sites of primitive people.
The separate hall is dedicated to the history of Georgia of the 20th century. During the reign of Mikhail Saakashvili, it was called the Museum of the Soviet Occupation. Now the historical assessments of those events are more balanced, although it must be admitted that Georgia also suffered during the Stalinist repressions in the 1930s. However, it is important to remember that Joseph Stalin was an ethnic Georgian, originally from Gori. The Stalin Museum is now located there. There is a monument to Stalin in front of it, the only one that has been preserved on the territory of the countries of the former Soviet Union
