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SAMARKAND 

Everything I have head about the beauty of Samakand is true… Except that it is even more beautiful than I could have imagined. (Alexander the Great). It was already a cosmopolitan walled capital of sogdian empire when Alexander conquered it during 329 B.C. The oldest evidence of urban of urban settlement is a collection of jewellery form a bronze age burial dating back to 1500 B.C.

Places of Interest in Samarkand

The Registan square

Ulugbek Mandressa on the west side is the oldest, finished in 1420 under Ulugbek. Beneath the little corner domes were lecture halls and at the rear a large mosque. About 100 students lived in two storey of dormitory cells most of which are still in good condition. The Other buildings are imitations by the shaybanid Emir Yalangtush. The entrance portal of the sher Dor Madresssa opposite Ulugbek’s and finished in 1636, is decorated with roaring tigers in between is the Tilla Kari Madressa completed in 1660,with a pleasant –like mosque courtyard.

Bibi Khanum Mosque

The gigantic congregational mosque in the northeast of Registan square was finished shortly before Timur’s death. It is one of the jewel of his empire. It finally collapsed in an earthquake in 1897 but has been restored after independence.

Shahi Zinda

The name which means Tomb of the Living refers to its original innermost and holiest shrine – a complex of cool quiet rooms around what is probably the grave of Qusam ibn  Abbas, a cousin of the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him ) who is said to have brought Ilsam to this area. It’s also an important place of pilgrimage. Except a few early tombs at the end the rest belongs to Timurs and Ulugbek’s  family and favorites.

Ulugbek Observatory

The grandson of Amir Timur, Ulugbek was less interested in conquering the earth than the stars and he became more famous as an astronomer than as a ruler. In 1420 he built the best equipped Observatory for leading scientists.

Guri Amir Mausoleum

Guri Amir Tomb of the Amir Timur, his two sons and two grandsons including Ulugbek, lie beneath this surprisingly modest mausoleum topped by a fluted azure dome Timur had built in 1404 for some of his sons and grandsons. When he died on the way to China in 1405 he was buried here because the passes to shakhrisabz  were snowed.