The archaeological monument “Botai Settlement” was placed under state protection by the Resolution No. 279 of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated March 21, 2008.The Republican State Enterprise “State Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve ‘Botai’” of the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan was established by the Resolution No. 150 of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated March 30, 2018. State registration was completed on August 13, 2018. The Director of the museum-reserve is Kuanysh Gibadatovich Shakshakov.

The main objective of the “State Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve “Botai” is to carry out research, collection, exhibition, and cultural-educational activities aimed at promoting this archaeological monument.

The archaeological monument Botai was discovered in 1980 by the head of the North Kazakhstan archaeological expedition V.F. Zaibert and for 40 years under his leadership archaeological research has been conducted at this unique object.

The archaeological monument “Botai Settlement” is located 1.5 km to the south-east of the village Nikolskoye of the Kazan rural district, Aiyrtau district, North Kazakhstan region, 400 km north-west of the capital Nur-Sultan of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and 300 km from Petropavlovsk.

The Botai culture is widely known in world archaeological science. The Botai settlement is the homeland of our ancestors who first domesticated the horse more than six thousand years ago.At the monument more than 15 thousand sq. m have been opened, 158 dwellings have been studied, more than 200 thousand artifacts and tens of thousands of bones of ancient animals have been revealed, of which 99.9% belong to horses.