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Samarkand is a city that exudes a great atmosphere taken from the history books about the Silk Road and Amir Timur’s great kingdom. All over the city there are magnificent traces of the ruler’s time in the form of beautiful Islamic style buildings, and some of Central Asia’s finest architecture can be enjoyed in the Uzbek city.
Registan is the centerpiece of the Samarkand that has been inscribed in UNESCO’s World Heritage list for many years. Registan is the most famous place in Uzbekistan and perhaps even throughout Central Asia. Three spectacular madrasas stand around the square, each lavishly decorated with the familiar blue tiles in rich variations in their geometrical patterns.
The Gur-Emir Mausoleum is located close to Registan, and it deserves its place in the history books for its beauty and inspiration for later mausoleums such as Taj Mahal in Indian Agra. It was in Samarkand, this style of architecture developed.
Samarkand is also the place where the historic Afrosiyob was located. It was on a hill at the city, where remains of the old town’s structure with fortresses and walls still can be seen today. There is a museum for Afrosiyob, and both the Biblical Daniel’s tombs and Ulugh Beks Observatory are located in the same area. The observatory was a scientific institution of high caliber in the 1400s.
Samarkand from recent years is positively influenced by the Russian era, which began with the incorporation into the Russian Empire in 1868. In Russian Turkistan, cities were planned and developed according to European models, and you can experience the architecture of this time as well as the one from the Soviet Union.
Registan Square is the heart of ancient Samarkand, and it dates back to a time when the city was the capital in the years 1370-1405 under the Timurid dynasty, who ruled their kingdom from 1370 to 1507. The name Registan is Persian for a sandy place or a desert .
The Registan was established as a publicly accessible square where major events such as royal proclamations or hangings took place. The square was very beautifully built, and it was surrounded by three Islamic Koranic schools, which are so-called madrassas.
The three Koranic schools are major attractions in their own right, and they were built during the 15th and 17th centuries. The oldest of the schools is the Ulugh Beg Madrassa, which lies to the west. Next comes Sherdor Madrassa opposite Ulugh Bek Madrassa, while the centrally located Tilyakori Madrassa is the youngest.
In the past, Registan was a marketplace, and there were, among other things, some of Samarkand’s caravansary around the square. There was one of these hostels in the open square to the south, but it was pulled down, leaving a clear view of the present and impressive square with its madrassas.
The Koran school Ulug’bek madrasasi dates almost from the time of the founder of the Timurid dynasty, Timur. He ruled his empire until 1405, and the beautiful school building was built in the years 1417-1420. In the 15th century, the madrassa was more than just an ordinary school building, as the Koranic school was counted among the leading theological universities in this part of the Muslim area.
The madrassa was named after Ulugh Bek, who as one of the leaders of the Timurid dynasty established the Koranic school. Ulugh Bek was also an academic profile in his time, and he was also a leading astronomer. The Koran school at Registan is one of three madrassas that Ulugh Bek established, the other two being in Bukhara and Gijduvan respectively.
The dominant aspect of the architecture is the facade’s iwan, which is a large portal with a pointed barrel vault. Such an iwan is seen at all three Koranic schools on the Registan ensemble of buildings, and at the Ulugh Beg Madrassa it was adorned with stylized geometric patterns.
The decorations are repeated on the side buildings and the two symmetrical minarets that flank the school’s iwan. Behind the facade is a courtyard with, among other things, a mosque, classrooms and rooms where contemporary students lived.
Today, the mattress is beautifully renovated, and both the exterior and interior decorations are an experience. Various small shops have been arranged in the historic premises on the ground floor.
The Gur-e Amir Mausoleum is one of Samarkand’s beautiful buildings from the centuries when the city once had the status of capital. The mausoleum is a building complex with several functions, and it dates from the beginning of the 15th century, where both Timur and his grandson Muhammad Sultan were builders and participants in different ways.
On the site was an Islamic Koranic school, a madrassa, established to educate children of Samarkand’s highest social classes. Opposite the madrassa, a khanaka was built, which is a kind of hostel for the students of the school.
The facility was supposed to be a kind of Islamic center, but Muhammad Sultan’s early death in 1403 meant that Timur had a mausoleum built for his grandson in part of the complex, and he stopped the rest of the facility. Timur himself died in 1405, and he was given a central burial ground in Gur-e Amir, where other members of his family were eventually laid to rest.
Timur’s sarcophagus is carved in a piece of black jade and stands with the other tombs in a particularly beautifully decorated domed room as the central part of the Gur-e Amir. The tombs themselves are one level below the sarcophagi and are simpler, as tradition dictates.
The Gur-e Amir Mausoleum is not only known in Samarkand and Uzbekistan; it has also provided the inspiration for some of the most famous Mughal buildings in India. It concerns, for example, Humayun’s Mausoleum in Delhi and the Taj Mahal in Agra, and Gur-e Amir was a kind of prototype for these constructions that Timur’s descendants in India built.
The entire complex consisted of the mausoleum and also a madrassa, a mosque and four minarets. After an earthquake, only the mausoleum, two minarets and the entrance remain. Excavated ruins of the other buildings can be seen.
A special sight is on the right inside the entrance area. This place was the inner courtyard of the facility, and there is now a standing stone block and a vessel behind it. The stone was the one on which Amir Timur sat or half-lyed when people came to him here. He had gold coins in the holes that he could give away. On these occasions the stone was covered with blankets and pillows. The tub behind the stone contained cold water or pomegranate juice, which Amir Timur could offer to soldiers whom he commanded to go on expeditions.
Bibi-Xonim Mosque is one of Samarkand’s famous old and impressive mosques. It was the founder of the Timurid dynasty, Timur, who, after a successful military advance in India, decided to build a magnificent mosque in his capital, Samarkand.
Construction began in 1399, and the mosque was already completed in 1404. The dimensions were colossal by the scale of the time, with outer walls of 167×109 meters, a portal of 35 meters and a dome that reached a height of 40 meters. It was then the world’s largest mosque and thereby an underlining of Amir Timur’s strength.
A large amount of precious stones were used to decorate the building, which Timur had captured on his journey to India. According to the contemporary Spanish traveler and writer, Ruy González de Clavijo, Timur had used 90 elephants from India to transport the precious stones, and the animals were also used for the actual construction of the Great Mosque.
The mosque fell into disrepair over the centuries, and in 1897 large parts of it were destroyed by an earthquake. Much fell into ruins, and it was only in 1974 that the Uzbek Soviet Republic decided to reconstruct the impressive work from Samarkand’s heyday as capital.
Despite both an earthquake and a recent reconstruction, a visit gives you an almost authentic feeling of the great work of history with buildings, stylized geometric decorations and the centrally placed marble Koran, which is from the original building. In the time of Amir Timur, the marble Koran was used to read from the Ushman Koran, which is today the world’s oldest preserved, and which can be seen in Tashkent. The Koran was one of Amir Timur’s spoils of war.
Despite the mosque’s impressive size today, it was even larger when it was built. It cannot be seen today, but many parts of the mosque were somewhat higher than today, and there were also quite a few smaller building parts that have been lost today.
Bibi-Khanym Mosque is named after the woman Bibi-Khanym, who was Amir Timur’s wife and queen. A legend about the mosque is that the architect behind the masterpiece fell in love with the queen, who agreed to meet him. After the meeting, Amir Timur found out what had happened, as all the women wore veils on one of his homecomings. This also applied to Bibi Khanym, who hid a kiss from the architect. Amir Timur forgave the repentant queen, but the next day the architect was sent to his death from one of the minarets.
The name Shah-i-Zinda means “the living king”, but the place is nevertheless a necropolis with mausoleums from the 8th-18th centuries. The long history and many fine constructions make Shah-i-Zinda a great sight, which is among Samarkand’s most unique building complexes.
The name “the living king” comes from the story that Muhammad’s cousin, Kusam ibn Abbas, was buried here, and according to folk traditions, it was a result of beheading due to his faith. After that, he should have taken his head underground to live on there.
A tradition then also goes to the effect that there is a cave under the central part of Shah-i-Zinda. Amir Timur is said to have asked if anyone would go down into the cave to see what was hidden there. Only Timur’s greatest general dared to enlist, and he would go down there if he got all the land he could ride around in a day. Amir Timur agreed, and the general rode and then went down into the cave. He was pulled down there using several ropes.
Here he met a door, and behind it a garden and a castle where the living king sat. The general had to promise not to say anything about his discovery, and if he did, he would be blinded. The living king also said that Amir Timur must not march against China. The general came up and Amir Timur forced him to tell about his experiences. The general then became blind, and Amir Timur died en route on his subsequent march towards China.
Before then, however, Amir Timur managed to arrange a beautiful monument to Kusam ibn Abbas; it can be visited today and is said to be the gateway to paradise. Overall, today you can see building remains dating back to the 11th century, but the more and more well-preserved structures date from the 13th-15th centuries as well as from recent centuries’ partial reconstructions. The buildings can be divided into lower, middle and upper groups of buildings seen from the entrance gate, which Ulugh Bek had built in 1434-1435.
In the lower group, the mausoleums were built in the first half of the 15th century, and the finest is the tomb of Kazi Zade Rumi. He was an astronomer and scientist, and his two-domed mausoleum called Qo’Shgumbazli Maqbara was built in 1434-1435 by Ulugh-Bek. Inside, you can see a sparingly decorated room compared to other mausoleums of the place. One can notice a beautiful detail with the gold dots on the walls and dome. These should form a starry sky.
The middle group was built in the decades around the year 1400, and it consists not least of mausoleums erected for members of Timur’s family. For example, you can see the gravestone for Shirin Bika Aga, who was Timur’s sister. There is also an octagonal tombstone here, which goes by the name of the brothers’ mausoleum, Sakkiz Qirrali Maqbara, and stands as a memorial to the fallen soldiers during Amir Timur’s battles.
In the upper group of buildings there are three mausoleums with the facades directly facing each other. The oldest is from the 1340s, and the buildings together form a beautiful complex, where you can admire some of the ornamentation that Islamic architecture is so rich in in many places.
To the east, immediately before you reach the three northernmost mausoleums, you can see Kusam ibn Abbas’s mausoleum with its associated mosque, which in its time was built as the central building in the new complex. The site thus constituted one of the primary constructions in the necropolis, which over time developed into the place you can experience today.
Since its completion in 1420, the Ulugh Bek Madrassa was the only Koranic school around Registan for nearly 200 years. In 1619, Samarkand’s ruler Yalangtosh Bahadur initiated the construction of the Koran school Sherdor madrasasi, and it was completed in 1636.
The Sherdor Madrassa was built symmetrically opposite the Ulugh Bek Madrassa with an identical structure in the form of a dominant iwan and two minarets of roughly the same dimensions. The decoration was also stylized geometry for a large part, but there are also tigers that also adorn the madrassa’s facade. The tigers are particularly interesting as they break with Islam’s tradition of non-depicted living creatures on religious buildings. They are symbols of Samarkand, and you can see tiger symbols all around the city.
Sherdor Madrassa is, like the rest of Registan, very impressive, and it was built slightly larger than Ulugh Bek Madrassa to appear larger in history.
Ten years after the completion of Sherdor Madrassa, Yalangtosh Bahadur initiated the construction of Tilyakori Madrassa. It was built in the years 1646-1660 as the third and last Koranic school around Registan.
The architecture is essentially identical to the Sherdor Madrassa, but the function was partially different, as the Tilyakori Madrassa had to function both as a Koranic school and as the city’s grand mosque.
Behind the facade is a large inner courtyard, where there are many living rooms, where the students once lived during their theological studies on the site. To the west of the courtyard is the large mosque, which was particularly beautifully ornamented with lavish use of gold in the painting of its walls and dome.
The mosque is quite visible from a distance with its distinguished blue dome. Architecturally, it fits very well with the corner towers of the madrassa, on which there are also blue domes.
This is a tomb in memory of the biblical Daniel. The tomb itself measures 18 meters in length and, according to tradition, contains relics of Daniel. The relics are said to be the ashes from his hand or arm. The length of the grave is also said to be due to the fact that the relics grow from year to year. Another version of the reason for the length of the grave is that they did not remember exactly where they buried the ashes.
Daniel was both the author of and main character in the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament. The book is about the Jewish Daniel who was taken to Babylon to learn the Babylonian culture. Hans maintained his Judaism and was condemned to sleep among lions to pray to God, even though it was forbidden.
There was Amir Timur who brought Daniel’s ashes home to Samarkand and they were immediately buried and established as a mausoleum. It was around the year 1400, and since then the superstructure of the tomb has been changed several times. Today you can see the tomb in a beautifully landscaped area along the river Siyob.
Next to the house itself with Daniel’s grave, a pistachio tree had died out, but after a visit in 2007, when Metropolitan Alexey of Moscow threw holy water on it, it sprouted again and grew again. Directly below the tree and Daniel’s grave, there is also a holy spring from which locals and visitors take water.
Behind Samarkand’s great Amir Timur Monument starts the University Boulevard, which was laid out as a grand boulevard by the Russian city planners after the incorporation of Samarkand into the Russian Empire in 1868. At the time, it was one of three streets that ran through the new parts of the city, which were the so-called European quarter.
The streets were then called Tashkentsky, Kattakurgansky and Abramovski Boulevard, and University Boulevard is the old Abramovskij. The boulevards emanated from the now defunct city fort from the Middle Ages, and University Boulevard, with its 128 meters in width, is the most impressive of Samarkand’s streets.
All the way along the boulevard, there are countless trees, and between the carriageways there is a beautiful walking path under tree crowns the entire length of the boulevard. Both the path and the entire University Boulevard as such are very popular for a stroll.
Along the street you can see various buildings, a few of the most interesting of which date from the Russian Imperial period. On the eastern side, as one of the first buildings from the north, is the former high school for girls, which today is part of Samarkand University. The yellowstone building was built on two floors in 1904.
On the western side of the boulevard, further south, you can see an architectural highlight in the form of the residence of the Russian military governor in Samarkand at the time. The elegant building with small spiers was built in a noble colonial style in 1875 and is used today by the city’s administration and mayor. Further south you can see smaller yellow stone buildings from the decades around 1900.
Central City Park is a fine and cozy green area that was laid out in the center of the Russian-styled quarter in Samarkand’s southwest. It is named after the national writer Alisher Navoi, and around it you will find various interesting buildings from different eras. In the park itself, there are many opportunities for recreation, walks and other relaxation. You can also see a statue of Alisher Navoi in the center of the park.
Siyob Bozor is the largest bazaar in Samarkand, and it is a very lively and interesting place to experience and taste local things such as the bread nan. The bazaar abounds in the season of the harvest of Uzbekistan’s lushness, and the sight and taste of fruits, nuts and processed foods are worth a trip. Both locals and visitors to the city go to Siyob Bazaar for shopping or an experience, and there is also the opportunity to buy typical Uzbek souvenirs here.
The area and thus all the streets west of the beautiful University Boulevard were built during the Samarkand era of the Russian Empire, which lasted from 1868 until the coming of the Soviet Union after the Russian Revolution in 1917.
The street Mustaqillik ko’chasi was the main street in the Russian expansion of Samarkand, and around it some of the city’s finest restaurants, shops, offices and hotels were built and decorated. Many of these can still be seen as the beautiful buildings that line the street originally named after the Russian Governor General von Kaufman.
There are also newer constructions such as Samarkand’s building for puppet theater. It originates from Uzbekistan’s Soviet era, when puppet theaters could be found in many cities.
The district around Mustaqillik ko’chasi can be called the European quarter, as the town plan and the architecture of the houses of the time are clearly European and primarily Russian. Thereby, the area differs from other parts of Samarkand and, in general, most of Uzbekistan.
The neighborhood is particularly cozy, and old trees stand along all the streets and provide shade with their beautiful tree crowns. Most of the buildings are not special sights, but as a whole a trip in the area is a very nice experience, where you can imagine being back to the beginning of the 20th century.
Bukhara is a magnificent city that is one of the highlights of the historic Silk Road that linked Europe with Asia. The trade routes passed through Central Asia, and Bukhara was one of the most important cities on the route through present-day Uzbekistan. To this day you can enjoy a lot of the Silk Road history in the magnificent sights in the city center.
Bukhara is located in the middle of the desert, and out of almost nowhere a beautiful city rises, where some of the world’s most beautiful Islamic buildings can be seen. The silhouette consists of not least the Kalyan Minaret as a landmark with a number of the distinctive light blue domes surrounding it
Gijduvan is a smaller city in the Bukhara region. Gijduvan is known for being an enterprising trading town with many talented artisans, whose pottery stands as probably the most famous part. You can thus visit workshops where ceramics are produced and hand painted according to traditional methods and patterns.
In terms of buildings, Gijduvan is the place where the famous theologian from the 12th century, Abdulkhalik Gijduvani, is buried. It has come about that the scientist and king Ulugh Bek founded and built one of his three famous madrassas here. The other two are located in Bukhara and Samarkand respectively.
Ulugh Bek was unusual in that he became king with a background as a skilled scientist, and knowledge was the reason for the establishment of his schools. Here, students had to strive for new knowledge, and the facilities themselves were classically built with two floors, one of which was housing for students, and the other was designed as classrooms.
The madrassa in Gijduvan was built from 1437, and it still stands beautifully in Gijduvan’s central square. Over time, the top floor of the Koranic school has disappeared, which happened after one of the many earthquakes that have shaken Central Asia over time.
Next to Ulugh Bek’s madrassa, you can see a beautiful minaret that was built with strong inspiration from the well-known Kalyan Minaret in Bukhara. The minaret here in Gijduvan is however somewhat smaller than the one in Bukhara. Next to the minaret is the local mosque.
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and largest city in Central Asia, and a visit here is a mix of historical sights, modern buildings and true metropolitan experiences. Ever since the Silk Road, the place has been an important strategic location on the caravans’ routes between China and Europe, and historically Tashkents role as a meeting place made it prosperous.
Tashkent is a metropolis whose neighborhoods and grand squares are connected by the subway from the time of the Soviet Union, which in itself is an attraction with contemporary designed stations in local style and inspiration. The city plan above the metro is characterized by wide streets and boulevards and large squares in the new district dating from the Russian and Soviet times.
Mirzo Ulug’bek ko’chasi
Toshkent yo’li
Mustaqillik ko’chasi, Registan, Mirzo Ulug’bek ko’chasi
Ulug’bek rasadxonasi
Toshkent yo’li
Markaziy istirohat bogi
Mustaqillik ko’chasi
The city of Samarkand is one of the oldest cities in Central Asia, and after millennia of human activity in the area, it proved to be an actual settlement from the 6th century BC; maybe the story goes back even further. There is no exact knowledge of the city’s founding, and researchers are constantly discussing new angles and archaeological finds from early Samarkand.
From the 6th century BC there is certainty that there was a well-developed water system for site settlement, which is also believed to be characterized by various artisan crafts. The site was among the easternmost parts of the Persian-administered area for the following centuries, and here, among other things, was a fort.
In the year 329 BC Macedonian Alexander the Great reached Samarkand, which he conquered that year. In Greek, the city was called Maracanda, and the Greek influence created after the initial destruction in 329 BC. a time of new development in the city. This meant that Greek building technology partially replaced the otherwise used, and in several other ways, Greek culture influenced the area for centuries after Alexander the Great.
In the year 260 Samarkand was conquered by the Sassanids, who were Persian kings, who ruled a large kingdom from Iran in the period 224 to 651. With the Sassanids, the dualistic religion of Manicism came to the area of Samarkand.
In the mid-400s, Samarkand was conquered by the Heftalites, also known as the White Huns. The Heftalites moved south across the Central Asian territory to present-day India and Pakistan, and retained power in Samarkand and the Uzbek until 557, defeated by an alliance between the Sassanids and Western Turkish Khana, which had arisen following a division of the Gktürkur khanat in Central Asia. The Gothic Turks ruled in Samarkand until the early 600s, when the Sassanids defeated their former allies.
However, the Turks came back to power when they won power after Islam entered Iran. They maintained it for a time until Chinese over the Tang Dynasty overcame them. After that event, Samarkand became a protectorate paying tribute to the Tang government. At this time, Samarkand was religiously home to many different religions, which had not been politically crucial.
Around the year 710, Muslims conquered Samarkand. It happened with the invasion of the Umayyad Caliphate under the leadership of Qutayba ibn Muslim. With the Muslims, Islam gained momentum, and some converted over the years to the new religion brought by the rulers.
During this time, the first paper mill in the Islamic world was established in Samarkand. This knowledge reportedly came from Chinese prisoners, and after the establishment in Samarkand the technique and production were copied in several other places, and the production eventually reached Europe as well.
In 862, Ismail Samani joined as ruler and he established the Samanid dynasty, which ruled Samarkand to 999 as vassals to the caliph. During the Sami times, Samarkand was further developed as a trading town along the Silk Road between east and west. Samarkand became one of the capital of the Sami people during this time.
With the end of the Samanid dynasty, various Turkish tribes came into power as rulers of Samarkand, and they came to rule the city in the following centuries.
Mongol forces under the leadership of Genghis Khan conquered Samarkand in 1220. According to some sources, several killed in the attack; it was they who hid in mosques or the fortifications of the city. At the conquest, Samarkand was also plundered, and thousands were enrolled in the Mongol army.
Another Mongol attack hit Samarkand, who was badly hit after these two looting. However, the city came back so much that Marco Polo in his descriptions noted that Samarkand was a large and distinguished city.
The Mongols’ control of Samarkand continued until the mid-1300s, when rulers were at the forefront of the city’s development, no longer a victim of the looting of the leaders. The government retained power until 1365, when a rebellion started in Samarkand.
From 1370 Timur established the Timurid Empire, which he expanded greatly from his capital, Samarkand. Timur won one campaign after another, and everywhere in the great kingdom there were skilled artists and craftsmen who went to Samarkand, which Amir Timur’s time came to make a significant building mark.
Timur continually developed the art and saved many artists’ lives so that they could make his capital more beautiful and impressive. Timur himself had visions for the buildings, which many times set new standards for the construction of the time. Among other things, Amir Timur was behind what was then the world’s largest mosque; it still stands like many other buildings from the time of Timur.
After the time of Amir Timur, who stopped his death in 1405, subsequently came from the same dynasty, and not many years passed before the scientist and the later king, Ulugh Bek, developed Samarkand and the kingdom. This happened with a focus on science and science, and among the visible holdings of Ulugh Bek was the establishment of an observatory in Samarkand and three mattresses in Samarkand, Gijduvan and Bukhara respectively.
From 1500, the nomadic Uzbek Shaybanids came to power in Samarkand, and they continuously conquered power in a larger area. After a few years they moved the capital from Samarkand to Bukhara, which of course stopped some of the development in Samarkand.
The downturn marked Samarkand, and over the following centuries various dynasties came to power in Bukhara, which as part of their territory also controlled Samarkand.
Konstantin von Kaufman entered Samarkand in 1868 for the growing Russian empire, which from Orenburg looked south to the Central Asian steppes that provided new trade opportunities.
Von Kaufman occupied the citadel of Samarkand, but with his 500 men, his soon-to-be self was besieged in the same place. This happened, among other things, by the emir of Bukhara’s rebellious son, Abdul Malik Tura, who, however, had to see himself beaten considerably by the Russian forces.
Von Kaufman became military general governor of Samarkand, which shortly after the Russian takeover, developed strongly with a new city plan according to Russian pattern and the construction of countless new institutions, churches and other things that belonged to the former Russia. The new city sprang up southwest of Samarkand’s old town, and colonial buildings of that time still dominate many places in the street scene in the area.
In 1886, Samarkand became the capital of the newly established Samarkand Oblast, and continued to advance rapidly with the railroad reaching the city in 1888; it was with the Transcaspic Railway, which connected Samarkand with Krasnovodsk, the present Turkmenbashi in Turkmenistan.
The following decades continued the development of the city, which via Tashkent was linked to European Russia by rail in 1906.
The Russian revolution in 1917 also included Uzbekistan. Initially, Russian Turkistan was established as a Soviet Republic named Turkistan’s Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. However, it had come to battle in the swells of the Russian Revolution. Bolsheviks had established Turkestan Soviet, while not least a Muslim council met in the city of Kokand and tried to establish Turkestan Autonomous Republic as a competitor to communist Turkistan. The fighting between the two groups continued until the 1920s with the Bolsheviks as victorious.
Turkestan’s ASSR was divided in 1924 into Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, from which Tajikistan was separated as a new Soviet republic in 1929. It was led by Josef Stalin, and the division followed ethnic lines as far as possible. In 1925, the SSR of Uzbekistan officially became a republic in the Soviet Union with Samarkand as its capital; however, this status passed to Tashkent in 1930.
World War II also came to Uzbekistan in the form of, first and foremost, an overall Soviet struggle against the German invasion. In addition, there was a great deal of industrial development and accompanying migration, as industries from the war-threatened and hardened western parts of the Union were moved to Uzbekistan, among others. Population groups that were supposed to have sympathy for the Axis powers were also moved to this, which included, for example, Koreans, Chechens and Crimean Tatars.
After the end of World War II, Soviet development of Uzbekistan continued. The focus was on industry and cotton production, which remains to be seen around Samarkand. Colossal irrigation projects were carried out with new channels that led the water from the rivers Syr-Darya and Amu-Darya to new cultivated land rather than the Aral Sea, which was gradually reduced to a fraction of the former’s size with the following problems for health, economy and climate.
However, the economy grew over the years, and eventually tourism developed into Samarkand, where the Soviet Union initiated major restorations of some of Samarkand’s larger historic buildings. New buildings continued to take the form of, among other things, administrative centers in the central city.
After Uzbek independence in 1991, tourism and infrastructure continued to focus, among other things, and one result is Afrosiyob, which opened in 2011 as the first high-speed train in Central Asia; it happened with the connection between Tashkent and Samarkand.
Samarkand, Uzbekistan
Overview of Samarkand
Samarkand is a city that exudes a great atmosphere taken from the history books about the Silk Road and Amir Timur’s great kingdom. All over the city there are magnificent traces of the ruler’s time in the form of beautiful Islamic style buildings, and some of Central Asia’s finest architecture can be enjoyed in the Uzbek city.
Registan is the centerpiece of the Samarkand that has been inscribed in UNESCO’s World Heritage list for many years. Registan is the most famous place in Uzbekistan and perhaps even throughout Central Asia. Three spectacular madrasas stand around the square, each lavishly decorated with the familiar blue tiles in rich variations in their geometrical patterns.
About the Whitehorse travel guide
Contents: Tours in the city + tours in the surrounding area
Published: Released soon
Author: Stig Albeck
Publisher: Vamados.com
Language: English
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Since its completion in 1420, the Ulugh Bek Madrassa was the only Koranic school around Registan for nearly 200 years. In 1619, Samarkand’s ruler Yalangtosh Bahadur initiated the construction of the Koran school Sherdor madrasasi, and it was completed in 1636.
The Sherdor Madrassa was built symmetrically opposite the Ulugh Bek Madrassa with an identical structure in the form of a dominant iwan and two minarets of roughly the same dimensions. The decoration was also stylized geometry for a large part, but there are also tigers that also adorn the madrassa’s facade. The tigers are particularly interesting as they break with Islam’s tradition of non-depicted living creatures on religious buildings. They are symbols of Samarkand, and you can see tiger symbols all around the city.
Sherdor Madrassa is, like the rest of Registan, very impressive, and it was built slightly larger than Ulugh Bek Madrassa to appear larger in history.
Ten years after the completion of Sherdor Madrassa, Yalangtosh Bahadur initiated the construction of Tilyakori Madrassa. It was built in the years 1646-1660 as the third and last Koranic school around Registan.
The architecture is essentially identical to the Sherdor Madrassa, but the function was partially different, as the Tilyakori Madrassa had to function both as a Koranic school and as the city’s grand mosque.
Behind the facade is a large inner courtyard, where there are many living rooms, where the students once lived during their theological studies on the site. To the west of the courtyard is the large mosque, which was particularly beautifully ornamented with lavish use of gold in the painting of its walls and dome.
The mosque is quite visible from a distance with its distinguished blue dome. Architecturally, it fits very well with the corner towers of the madrassa, on which there are also blue domes.
This is a tomb in memory of the biblical Daniel. The tomb itself measures 18 meters in length and, according to tradition, contains relics of Daniel. The relics are said to be the ashes from his hand or arm. The length of the grave is also said to be due to the fact that the relics grow from year to year. Another version of the reason for the length of the grave is that they did not remember exactly where they buried the ashes.
Daniel was both the author of and main character in the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament. The book is about the Jewish Daniel who was taken to Babylon to learn the Babylonian culture. Hans maintained his Judaism and was condemned to sleep among lions to pray to God, even though it was forbidden.
There was Amir Timur who brought Daniel’s ashes home to Samarkand and they were immediately buried and established as a mausoleum. It was around the year 1400, and since then the superstructure of the tomb has been changed several times. Today you can see the tomb in a beautifully landscaped area along the river Siyob.
Next to the house itself with Daniel’s grave, a pistachio tree had died out, but after a visit in 2007, when Metropolitan Alexey of Moscow threw holy water on it, it sprouted again and grew again. Directly below the tree and Daniel’s grave, there is also a holy spring from which locals and visitors take water.
Behind Samarkand’s great Amir Timur Monument starts the University Boulevard, which was laid out as a grand boulevard by the Russian city planners after the incorporation of Samarkand into the Russian Empire in 1868. At the time, it was one of three streets that ran through the new parts of the city, which were the so-called European quarter.
The streets were then called Tashkentsky, Kattakurgansky and Abramovski Boulevard, and University Boulevard is the old Abramovskij. The boulevards emanated from the now defunct city fort from the Middle Ages, and University Boulevard, with its 128 meters in width, is the most impressive of Samarkand’s streets.
All the way along the boulevard, there are countless trees, and between the carriageways there is a beautiful walking path under tree crowns the entire length of the boulevard. Both the path and the entire University Boulevard as such are very popular for a stroll.
Along the street you can see various buildings, a few of the most interesting of which date from the Russian Imperial period. On the eastern side, as one of the first buildings from the north, is the former high school for girls, which today is part of Samarkand University. The yellowstone building was built on two floors in 1904.
On the western side of the boulevard, further south, you can see an architectural highlight in the form of the residence of the Russian military governor in Samarkand at the time. The elegant building with small spiers was built in a noble colonial style in 1875 and is used today by the city’s administration and mayor. Further south you can see smaller yellow stone buildings from the decades around 1900.
Central City Park is a fine and cozy green area that was laid out in the center of the Russian-styled quarter in Samarkand’s southwest. It is named after the national writer Alisher Navoi, and around it you will find various interesting buildings from different eras. In the park itself, there are many opportunities for recreation, walks and other relaxation. You can also see a statue of Alisher Navoi in the center of the park.
Siyob Bozor is the largest bazaar in Samarkand, and it is a very lively and interesting place to experience and taste local things such as the bread nan. The bazaar abounds in the season of the harvest of Uzbekistan’s lushness, and the sight and taste of fruits, nuts and processed foods are worth a trip. Both locals and visitors to the city go to Siyob Bazaar for shopping or an experience, and there is also the opportunity to buy typical Uzbek souvenirs here.
The area and thus all the streets west of the beautiful University Boulevard were built during the Samarkand era of the Russian Empire, which lasted from 1868 until the coming of the Soviet Union after the Russian Revolution in 1917.
The street Mustaqillik ko’chasi was the main street in the Russian expansion of Samarkand, and around it some of the city’s finest restaurants, shops, offices and hotels were built and decorated. Many of these can still be seen as the beautiful buildings that line the street originally named after the Russian Governor General von Kaufman.
There are also newer constructions such as Samarkand’s building for puppet theater. It originates from Uzbekistan’s Soviet era, when puppet theaters could be found in many cities.
The district around Mustaqillik ko’chasi can be called the European quarter, as the town plan and the architecture of the houses of the time are clearly European and primarily Russian. Thereby, the area differs from other parts of Samarkand and, in general, most of Uzbekistan.
The neighborhood is particularly cozy, and old trees stand along all the streets and provide shade with their beautiful tree crowns. Most of the buildings are not special sights, but as a whole a trip in the area is a very nice experience, where you can imagine being back to the beginning of the 20th century.
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