KNU — Geological Museum

The museum was founded in 1834 as the Mineralogical Cabinet of the Department of Mineralogy and Geognosy of St. Volodymyr University. The initial fund of the museum consisted of samples from Volyn Lyceum, Lutsk Gymnasium and Vilnius University. From 1834 to 1837, the collection of the Mineralogical Cabinet grew to 19,362 samples of minerals, rocks and fossils. Many outstanding scientists of Kyiv University made a great contribution to the development of the museum and the systematization of its collections.

The museum has 4 departments devoted to general geology and geological processes, history of the Earth and paleontology, mineralogy and petrography, as well as geology and minerals of Ukraine. The collection includes about 10,000 exhibits and more than 50,000 are in the funds, including unique samples of minerals, rocks and fossils. The exposition of the museum presents information about the position of the Earth in space, its structure, the evolution of the organic world, minerals, decorative stones and minerals of Ukraine. The mammoth skeleton found on the territory of Kyiv is one of the central exhibits in the paleontological department of the museum.