Samarkand
Samarkand, ancient and modern
The ancient town of Central Asia has a huge and ever changing history but remained a very charming and green city until our recent days.
We would like to show you our Samarkand, its quirreling life, the historic sites, the bazaars and the modern city, the second one after Tashkent.
Samarkand (1991 pop. 395,000) is one of the oldest existing cities in the world and the oldest of Central Asia. At the time of its greatest splendor medieval Samarkand was a fabulous city of palaces and gardens, with paved and tree-lined streets and a water system that supplied most of the individual houses. It had great silk and iron industries and was the meeting point of merchants' caravans from India, Persia, and China.
Modern Samarkand still is a major cotton and silk center. Wine and tea are produced, grain is processed, and there are industries producing metal products, tractor parts, leather goods, clothing, and footwear. The irrigated surrounding region has orchards and gardens and wheat and cotton fields. Samarkand is the seat of the Uzbekistan state university and of medical, agricultural, and teachers' institutes and the site of a regional museum.
You come as an individual or in a small group, so lets show
you Samarkand the way few foreigners have seen it.
Nightlife in Samarkand
became exiting lately and after that you get a splendid hotel with breakfast.
F
or
Samarkand we recommend you at least two days, what doesn't mean that here
is'nt to discover that a month is not enough.
Write us your plans or try one of our individual proposals to meet Samarkand and the Samarkands.
More about historic sites in Samarkand
Situated in the valley of the river Zarafshan, Samarkand
is the second largest city of Uzbekistan and is of the same age as the city
of Babylon or Rome. The history of Samarkand is about 2,500 years
old and has witnessed a lot of upheavals during the times of Alexander the
Great, the Arabic Conquest, Genghis-Khan Conquest and lastly Tamerlane's.
Hence, the culture of Samarkand was developed and mixed together with the
Iranian, Indian, Mongolian and a bit of the Western and Eastern cultures. Majestic
and beautiful city Samarkand has a marvelous and attractive power. Poets
and historians of the past called it "Rome of the East, The beauty
of sublunary countries, The pearl of the Eastern Moslem World". Its
advantageous geographical position in Zarafshan valley put Samarkand
to the first place among cities of the Central Asia.
In 1404 Temur the Great ordered to build the mausoleum Guri-Emir
(Tomb of Emir) for his loving grandson, Mukhammad Sultan. With time, the
mausoleum became the family crypt of the Temurids dynasty. Majesty and lightness
of architectural lines and shapes, richness of the multi-colored mosaic
- all this makes the mausoleum a unique monument of Central Asian architecture.
Next to Tamerlane, there are the graves of his sons Shakhrukh and Miranshakh
and his grandsons Mukhammad-sultan and Ulugbek. There are two more Temurids
tombs nearby: the Mausoleum Rukhabad, built for Sheikh Burhanuddin Sagharji
in the 1380s and the modest-sized Mausoleum Ak-Saray built in 1470s for the
last of Temurids.
One of the holy sites attracting a great number of pilgrims is the memorial
and research complex of the Islamic scholar and theologian Imam Ismail
al-Bukhari. For a millennium, the whole Muslim world has had deep respect
for Imam-al-Bukhari. His works are
considered to be an achievement of theological thought,
which ranks the second after the holy Koran in its value. This collection
contains 600,000 hadiths entitled "Al-Jami as -Sahih" or "Sincere Book".
The scholar's grave is located in a village not far from Samarkand.
His tomb is a holy place attracting Muslim pilgrims. The complex is
built on his tomb and includes Mausoleum al-Bukhari, a mosque and a library.
The Registan was the heart of the ancient Samarkand. The word Registan means "a
sandy place." It existed long before the Mongol invasion as a city trade
and artisan square. It is the point of six roads, which ran from the city
gates. From this very place to the strains of copper trumpets public criers announced
citizens about new orders of the ruler.
Under Tamerlane's rule the Registan became the city's square and during the
time of Ulugbek it was adorned with majestic buildings. The entire group
of buildings, including the madrassas, khanakas, mosques and caravan-sarais,
was constructed during his time.
Registan is surrounded from three sides with majestic buildings: Madrassa
Ulugbek (1417 - 1420), Sher Dor (1619 - 1636), Tilla Kari (1647 - 1660).
The Ulugbek Madrassa is the highest religious institution, a kind of university
of the Middle Ages. In ancient manuscripts it was mentioned that Ulugbek
himself taught mathematics. The Ulugbek Madrassa has its majestic portal
with lancet arch facing the square. The corners are flanked by the high well-proportioned
minarets, which were never used by muedzins, there were said instead to hold
up the sky.
Two monumental buildings were constructed in the 17th c. on Registan - Madrassa
Sher-Dor and Tilla-Kori. They are distinguished by the imposing sizes
and luxury of decoration, though in terms of the architectural value they
nevertheless give away to their prototype, Madrassa Ulugbek.
The most considerable of all madrassas of the 17th c. is Sher-Dor
which means "Building
with lions". It was built for almost 17 years under the project of
emir Yalangtosh, the Governor of Samarkand. Ten years later, during the same
governor, the Madrassa Tilla Kori was constructed, closing Registan from
the north. The name Tillya-Kori means "trimmed with gold". Madrassa
Tilla Kori, apart from its primary goal (training students) executed
the role of the main mosque.
On the southeast slope of Afrosiab one of the famous ancient architectural
ensembles of Samarkand is situated - the burial vault Shahi Zinda. It
consists of eleven mausoleums, which were built one after another in the 14-15th
c. Some of these buildings with blue cupolas, majolica on high portals, ornamented
stone arches, ornaments of piles have been restored by the architects and
folk foremen.
The entrance portal of Shahi Zinda, which crowns the whole ensemble, is the
latest construction.
The inscription
on the portal says: "This majestic building is founded by Abdulazazkhan,
son of Ulugbek-Guragan, son of Shakhrukh, son of Amir Temur - Guragan in
883" (1434 AD). Having mounted thirty-six steps of the ancient stairway,
the visitor finds himself in an open gallery. Here on the left and
on the right are situated the burial vault - mausoleums of Temur's
close relatives, including his wife Tuman-aka and sister Shirin - bika-aka.
The gallery finishes with a round yard with a vaulted arch.
Under it on the right there is an ancient carved door, which leads to
the most ancient construction of Shahi Zinda ensemble - mausoleum Kussam ibn-Abbas.
He was declared "saint" for the sermon and setting up of Islam in Samarkand
after its seizure by Arabs. The keepers of Shahi Zinda will for sure tell
the tourists the ancient legend that Kussam ibn-Abbas who lived here, one day,
after finishing the sermon, removed his own head from shoulders, took it
in his arm-pits and hid through a narrow slot in a cave, where he is
still living ostensibly nowadays. That is where the name "Shahi Zinda" which
means "A Living King" comes.
As a whole, the architectural ensemble Shahi Zinda represents a unique museum
of glazed decor of the 14-15th c. One can find here glazed and carved terracotta,
wonderful samples of the set mosaic, large mosaic made of glazed bricks.
Another outstanding architectural construction of medieval Samarkand
is the main mosque Bibi Khanum. Its construction began in 1399, after
Temurs victorious campaign on India. The mosque had been constructed
in five years.
By Temurs plan the mosque Bibi Khanum was supposed to eclipse all that he saw in
other countries. The architects, artists, foremen and craftsmen from many
countries of the East were involved in construction. Two hundred stone-carvers
from Azerbaijan, Fars, Indostan and other countries worked in the mosque
and five hundred workers in the mountains near Penjikent, extracting
and carving the stones and sending them to Samarkand.
The construction was not yet completed, when Temur again set off for
one of his campaigns. After returning to the capital, he went immediately
to look on the new mosque. The grandiose buildings occupied a rectangular
court yard of 130x102 meters. On its western side towered the main
mosque, on the northern and southern - small mosques. The spacious internal
courtyard was covered with marble plates and enclosed with covered gallery
for devout. The entrance to the courtyard was designed as a high portal
with two round minarets fifty meters high. The facade of the main mosque
was also decorated with majestic portal with two minarets.
The walls of all premises were richly decorated from outside with multi-colored
glazed bricks which formed whimsical geometrical ornament and religious
sayings. The magnificent and rich furnishing of internal premises consists
of facing with glazed mosaic, carved marble and gilt patterns. However, Temur
was dissatisfied by construction and in anger ordered to seize the nobles
- Khoja Makhmud David and Muhammad Jeld, who were supervising construction.
They were sentenced to death and hung up behind the channel Siab, at the
foot of Chupanata.
Ulugbek (Temur's grandson) ruled the country for 40 years. During his rule
Samarkand became one of the scientific centers of world during the
Middle Ages. In Samarkand Ulugbek created a scientific school, which untied
outstanding astronomers and mathematicians. Ulugbek was the founder of
the unique construction of the observatory (1428-1429).
There was a gigantic marble sextant there, its radius was 40.212 meter
and the length of the arc is 63 meters. The instrument was made in
all details and was very precise. It was used to determine the coordinates
of the Sun, the Moon and other planets. Ulugbek created the astronomic catalogue "Stars
Tables". The preciseness of Samarkand astronomers' observatory surprises,
because they did not use any optical instruments, only their eyes.
