The G. N. Prozritelev and G. K. Prave Stavropol State Museum-Reserve was established in February 24, 1905 as the North Caucasus Museum of local history. Archaeological and ethnographic collections of public activist, regional ethnographer and archeologist G. N. Prozritelev (1849-1933) were at the basis of the museum. At the same time the City Museum of educational visual aids was founded in Stavropol. Initiative of its foundation came from the notary, public figure and collector G. K. Prave (1862-1925).

    In 1927, the North Caucasus Museum and the City Museum of educational visual aids have been merged into one institution, is located in the trade building, where the museum is today. Now it is called «The G. N. Prozritelev and G. K. Prave stavropol state historical-culture and natural-landscape museum-reserve».

    On displays and in the stores of one of the biggest in the North Caucasus museum there are more than 300,000 items which illustrate the history, nature and culture of this multinational territory from prehistoric to modern times.

    On show in the museum are numerous historical relics, unique photographs and documents, articles of daily life and work of the Northern Caucasus nations, rare collections of arms, coins and medals of many periods and peoples, fine pictures, old manuscripts and books.

    Many exhibits are of international importance, among them a skeleton of a fossil southern elephant that lived more than one million years ago, a stone mausoleum of an Alan chiefman dating back to the 10-11 th centuries, the first in the world fossil reconstruction of a prehistoric rhinoceros, unique collection of imprints of insects living in the Tertiary Period and many others