Tanais is one of the largest historical open-air museums of this type in Russia. It covers the site of the ancient settlement Tanais, excavated in the middle of the twentieth century. Less than half of Tanais and its necropolis have been found by this point in time.
The museum complex also includes halls with finds, an open-air exposition - lapidarium and reconstruction of the buildings of the antiquity era (an apartment house belonging to the farmer's family, the city gate, the sanctuary). Here you can find more than 140 thousand exhibits, including a collection of amphorae, which is stored in clear form in the unique "Amphora Tare Hall". Other halls of the museum cover such topics as the foundation of Tanais in the 3rd century BC by the Bosporan Greeks, its trade relations, cultural and political life, the mode of life of its peoples and the history of the discovery of Tanais.