Mykola Syadristy Micro-Miniatures Museum, Kiev

The Museum of Micro-Miniatures in Kiev is unique in a sense that it features a collection of microscopic works created by a single man, Mykola Syadristy. And it's not surprising, since those able to “shoe a flea,” quite literally, do not come in numbers. The most striking part of these exhibits is that all of them are made by hand, using the technology customized for each and every item.

It is only here that you can find artifacts so tiny and manufactured with such a great precision. The presented miniatures are truly mind-boggling and can truly expand one’s vision of what human hand can do. Among these are the world's smallest working electrical motor – the size of 1/20 mm, which is almost 20 times smaller than a poppy seed; a rose branch 0.05 mm-thick inserted inside a human hair; a whole caravan of golden camels placed in the needle ear; or a fragment of the Oginski Polonaise orchestral score engraved on the glass chrysanthemum petal measuring only 2x5 mm.

Practically each of the art pieces here is one of a kind and impossible to imitate. Never mind imitating, seeing them as such, with the naked eye, is not possible either. Try hard as you can to make out without a microscope the beautiful bas-relief portrait of the ballerina Maya Plisetskaya placed on the small part of a cherry stone, 3x4 mm; or a windmill made from 203 golden parts, small enough to fit on half a poppy seed. These are just a few wonders displayed at this remarkable place in the Kiev Pechersky Lavra.