During the prosperous reign of Mohammed Amin Khan his wife had the Madrassah commissioned for her son, Abdullah. After the untimely beheading of his father whilst in battle against the Turkoman, Abdullah became Khan when only seventeen years old. Within months he followed in his father's footsteps and went to war with the Turkoman tribes but was swiftly slain in combat.
Today his madrassah is the museum of natural history which displays ageing items of stuffed wildlife, including a forlorn-looking seagull which is thousands of kilometres away from the sea! Most animal exhibits are now extinct or extremely rare and provide a grim reminder of the Aral Sea basin's once thriving animal population. Cotton, one of the main culprits of the Sea's decline, is also on display.
Note the protruding sticks above the entrance which were built to ward off the evil eye, and beware of attempts at overcharging in this particular museum.