The museum opened in 2001 is a departmental museum, but at the same time has a national status, which was the recognition of the value and importance of its collections at the state level.

The museum's collections amounted to archaeological materials collected by the researchers and their Tajik colleagues from the scientific and museum center in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other Russian cities, as well as foreign scientists for nearly a century of archaeological research in Tajikistan.

Exhibit Museum located in the two-story building and is valuable masterpieces and archaeological sites from the excavations conducted by the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan. The museum boasts collections of articles from the Hellenistic temple on the site of Takht Ox-Sangin, masterpieces of mural painting Penjikent.

The most popular and valuable museum exhibit of Tajikistan, commonly referred to as exposed in the museum statue of Buddha in Nirvana. Its length is 12.85 meters, and weighs 5.5 tons statue was discovered during archaeological investigations Buddhist monastery in the early Middle Ages Ajina Teppe and today is one of the largest and oldest Buddhist monument in the world.

The museum also presents unique monuments of material and spiritual culture, found during excavations in Khujand, Panjakent Istaravshan, Kulyab Hulbuk. Labeling is in Tajik and English.

The museum is one of the most visited museums in Dushanbe. Here reviews and thematic tours for tourists, schoolchildren and students are conducted. The mmuseum participates in international exhibitions.