The Museum presents a wonderful collection of items from the local area as well as items from other areas on the ancient Silk Road.
The museum has a large collection of silk items from many periods of history. Brocades from Eastern Han and specialized silk-woven products of the great Tang Dynasty are highlighted.
The Xinjiang area has long been China's melting pot. Over 10 ethnic groups live in this vast area. The diversity of their scripts and cultures is exhibited in this museum through archaeological material, including documents in twelve different scripts including a particularly large number from the Han-dynasty finds at Turfan. This documents military, economic, cultural, and political affairs.
The museum also displays clay or terracotta sculptures. Among these are single-humped Central Asian camels, fat and vigorous Yuan-dynasty horses, women figurines in all postures and impressively fierce soldiers.
Other items in the collections include microliths, silver works of art, stone steles, ancient coins, potteries and wooden articles.
Perhaps the most interesting things in the museum are the various foods from the Tang dynasty which, through the arid conditions have been preserved for more than one thousand years.
Xinjiang has a very dry weather which provided protection for human mummies that were found in this area.Some of these dried dead bodies are housed in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region Museum.
