Key facts

• The Registan: the central square of Timurid Samarkand and the greatest Islamic architectural ensemble in the world — three tile-covered madrasas (religious schools) arranged around a central square: the Ulugh Beg Madrasa (1417–20, commissioned by Timur’s grandson Ulugh Beg, who was simultaneously ruler, astronomer, and mathematician), the Sher-Dor Madrasa (1619–36, “Lion-Bearing,” notable for the two tiger-lions with human faces — unusually figurative for Islamic art — in the tympanums of the entrance pishtaq), and the Tilya-Kori Madrasa (1646–60, “Gilded,” whose mosque interior is decorated entirely in gold-leaf painted plasterwork — the most extravagant gilded ceiling in Central Asia); the three facades, with their 35-metre-high entrance portals covered in geometric tile mosaic and stalactite muqarnas vaulting, form a composition of architectural scale and colour intensity unique in the Islamic world; the Registan is illuminated nightly with a son-et-lumière show
• Gur-e-Amir (Tomb of the Ruler): the mausoleum of Timur and the prototype of all subsequent Islamic mausoleum design in Central Asia and India — built by Timur originally as the tomb for his favourite grandson Muhammad Sultan (who died in battle 1403); when Timur himself died in January 1405 (on a military campaign against China) his body was brought back to Samarkand and interred here; the ensemble (entrance pishtaq with blue-and-white tile mosaic, inner courtyard, the fluted turquoise dome on a high drum) established the visual vocabulary that the Mughal emperors of India directly inherited; Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal, was Timur’s sixth-generation descendant and the Taj Mahal’s structural layout (elevated tomb with four minarets, reflecting pool, formal garden — the charbagh) is a direct development of the Gur-e-Amir model; Timur’s actual tomb is a dark green nephrite block (the largest carved nephrite object in the world); Soviet archaeologists opened the tomb in June 1941 — the day before the Nazi invasion of the USSR began
• Shah-i-Zinda Necropolis: the most atmospheric and visually intense heritage site in Samarkand — a 900-metre avenue of tombs and mausoleums of the Timurid period (14th–15th century), densely packed on either side of a covered alley on the slope of the Afrosiab hill; the tile decoration of the Shah-i-Zinda mausoleums is considered the finest example of tilework in Central Asia — the colour range (from deep cobalt blue to turquoise, from white to gold and terracotta), the variety of tile-cutting techniques (mosaic, carved, painted), and the sheer density of decorated surfaces on a confined path make Shah-i-Zinda visually overwhelming; the necropolis centres on the Shrine of Kusam ibn Abbas (a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad, who according to tradition brought Islam to Samarkand and was martyred here), which has been a pilgrimage site since the 11th century
• Bibi-Khanym Mosque: the largest mosque ever built in the Islamic world at the time of its construction (1399–1404) — Timur commissioned the mosque on his return from the sack of Delhi (1398–99), intending it to surpass every mosque that had previously existed; the main dome (41 metres diameter) was the largest in Central Asia; the 18-metre-high main entrance portal was the largest in the Islamic world; the complexity of the programme — too ambitious to be structurally sound — caused the mosque to begin collapsing within decades of completion; partially restored in Soviet times and currently undergoing systematic Uzbek government restoration; the ruins (only the entrance portal, two flanking minarets, and the main dome survive intact) are entered freely
• The Ulugh Beg Observatory: the most important astronomical observatory of the pre-telescopic world — built by Ulugh Beg (1394–1449, ruler of Samarkand and grandson of Timur) between 1424 and 1429; the observatory housed a giant circular sextant (a curved marble arc, 40 metres in radius, set vertically in a trench cut into a hillside) for measuring the declination angle of stars with a precision unmatched until the 18th century; Ulugh Beg’s star catalogue (published 1437) listed 1,018 stars with positions more accurate than any previous catalogue; his measurement of the solar year (365 days, 6 hours, 10 minutes, 8 seconds) deviated from the modern value by only 58 seconds; the observatory was destroyed in 1449 (the year Ulugh Beg was assassinated by his own son); the arc trench was excavated in 1908 and is now an open museum
• Heritage: UNESCO World Heritage Site, Samarkand — Crossroads of Cultures, inscribed 2001
• GPS: 39.6542° N, 66.9758° E