Nukus is now the 6th largest city in Uzbekistan but it grew from a small settlement into a pleasant, modern Soviet city with broad avenues and big public buildings. However, the city's isolation made it host to the Red Army's Chemical Research Institute, a major research and testing centre for chemical warfare weapons.

The State Museum has artifacts recovered from archaeological investigations, traditional jewelry, costumes and musical instruments, but more interestingly, displays of the area's now vanished or endangered flora and fauna. The Art Museum is noted for its collection of modern Russian and Uzbek art from 1918-1935. Stalin tried his best to eliminate all non Soviet art from this period, and sent most of the artists to the gulag. The collection at Nukus survived because of the city's remoteness.