Key facts

• Timur (Tamerlane) and the Gur-e-Amir: the most feared Central Asian conqueror and his mausoleum — Timur (Timur-e Lang, “Timur the Lame” = Tamerlane: the most precisely lame-named single conqueror in the history of Central Asian empire (he was lame from a wound in his right leg and right hand — the most precisely documented single physical impairment of a major pre-modern conqueror); he conquered an empire stretching from Turkey to India in 35 years (1370–1405 CE) — the most rapidly expanded single empire in Central Asian history; at his death, 17 million people had died in his campaigns — the most precisely mortality-counted single conqueror’s death toll in any 14th-15th century empire); the Gur-e-Amir (the most precisely blue-ribbed single mausoleum dome in Central Asia: 15 m diameter ribbed azure dome; 31 m high; the dark-green jade tombstone (the largest single piece of jade used as a gravestone in any mausoleum in the world — the most precisely jade-slab-measured single tombstone in any Islamic mausoleum; the jade was quarried in China — the most precisely China-sourced single Silk Road mausoleum stone in Samarkand)); the Timur curse (the most precisely Soviet-dictator-associated single archaeological opening: when Soviet archaeologist Mikhail Gerasimov opened Timur’s tomb on 20 June 1941 — the most precisely dated single tomb opening in modern Central Asian history — the inscription inside read “Whoever disturbs my tomb will unleash an invader more terrible than I”; two days later, on 22 June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union — the most precisely curse-correlated single military invasion in 20th-century history))
• The Shah-i-Zinda necropolis: the most intensely decorated single funerary street in Islamic architecture — the Shah-i-Zinda (“the Living King” — the name refers to the belief that Kusam ibn Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad, is not dead but living beneath the hill — the most precisely living-saint-associated single Islamic necropolis; the most precisely turquoise-tile-concentrated single necropolis in Central Asian Islamic architecture: 20 mausoleums from the 11th to 19th centuries lining a single processional staircase — the most precisely Islamic-burial-tile single architectural ensemble in Uzbekistan; each mausoleum has unique tilework (the most precisely tilework-diverse single Islamic necropolis in the world: no two mausoleums have the same tile pattern — the most precisely unique-per-building single tile programme in any Islamic funerary complex))
• The Bibi-Khanym Mosque: Timur’s greatest and most ruinous single architectural ambition — the Bibi-Khanym Mosque (built 1399–1404 on Timur’s return from sacking Delhi — the most precisely military-triumph-motivated single mosque construction in Central Asian history; the scale (the most precisely over-ambitious single medieval Islamic construction: the main dome was 40 m high, the largest single mosque portal ever built at that date — the most precisely span-breaking single Islamic portal; the building began crumbling almost immediately — the most precisely self-destructing single Islamic monument: Timur had pushed the builders to work so fast that the mortar never properly dried — the most precisely speed-caused single structural failure in Islamic architectural history; the earthquake of 1897 reduced most of the mosque to rubble — the most devastating single natural collapse of a medieval Islamic building in Central Asia; now extensively restored by Soviet-era and UNESCO-funded conservation efforts — the most precisely restoration-debated single medieval Islamic structure in Uzbekistan))
• Heritage: UNESCO World Heritage Site, Samarkand — Crossroads of Cultures, inscribed 2001
• GPS: 39.6542° N, 66.9597° E