Samarkand, the famous city along the Silk Road, was our last stop on this fascinating journey. Being not far from Bukhara, we made several stops during the morning transfer.

The first was the ancient minaret of the city of Vobkent, which was built in the 12th century AD, during the reign of the Khwarezmian Shah Ala al-Din Tekish. We then visited one of the most famous ceramic production workshops in all of Uzbekistan, located in the town of Gijduvan.

The workshop, run by the Narzullaev family for generations, has been transformed into a small museum that tells the story of the art of traditional ceramic production. Another stop was to see an ancient, covered cistern that belonged to the Rabati Malik Caravanserai, presumably built in the 11th century AD.

Finally, before reaching Samarkand, we stopped to photograph the cotton fields, still partially in bloom. Along these streets you will often find stalls selling yellow melons as well.

1) Vademecum

• To visit the main monuments of the city of Samarkand you need at least one day. As always, we recommend starting the visit early in the morning.
• To see Shahrisabz, the birthplace of Tamerlane, you need to travel by car and plan to add another day to the trip.
• The sun in Samarkand was less intense than that encountered in Nukus, Khiva and Bukhara, so in our opinion it is possible to make the most of the entire day available.
• The visit to the city can include a historic workshop where paper is produced, useful for understanding the manufacturing process which the Arabs took over in the battle of Talas.
• Definitely go to Registan square before sunset: you will be literally enchanted by the play of light and shadows that color the historic madrasas!

2) The history

Samarkand was the point of reference for all those who wanted to reach the Far East, and its destiny was always intertwined with the use of the Silk Road as a caravan route, until its decline after the 16th century AD. According to historians, the city of Samarkand was founded between the 7th and 5th centuries BC.

Known to the Greeks as Marakanda, the ancient city, located in the northern district, was stormed and conquered in 329 BC. by Alexander the Great, who found her "more beautiful than I expected" for the occasion.

Centuries followed with little historical interest, at least until the 8th century AD, a period in which it became an outpost of the Arab conquest during the expansion into the East. The city developed during the Samanid period in the same way as Bukhara: mosques, mighty walls and a water supply system were built.

Unfortunately, as with all other cities in Central Asia, in the 13th century the army led by Genghis Khan arrived, who laid fire to it and killed most of the inhabitants with the exception of the few master craftsmen, who were deported to Mongolia. to decorate the capital of the Mongol empire.

This blow was almost lethal for the city, but in the following two centuries it reached its maximum splendor because it was chosen by the invincible leader Tamerlane as the capital of his empire.

Samarkand, the nerve center of power of the vast Timurid empire, became legendary and was embellished with grandiose mosques, madrasas and mausoleums.

The work of the great emir was continued by his nephew, Ulug Bek, the famous astronomer-king.

Its decline began when Bukhara was chosen as the capital of the khanate; from that moment Samarkand followed the same fate as all the other cities along the Silk Road, with the final Russian conquest of the 19th century. The Soviets found the mythical city in ruins, and proceeded to restore and modernize it.

Tamerlane

Amir Timur, known in Europe as Tamerlane, is the national hero of Uzbekistan. His ability as a military strategist, combined with his brutality and strategy of terror (similar in some ways to that adopted by Genghis Khan), led him to be compared to the great conquerors of human history, like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan.

Tamerlane was born in Kesh (now known as Shahrisabz) in 1336 AD, to a family belonging to the Barlas Turkic-Mongol tribe, descended from one of Genghis Khan's imperial clans. During the course of his life, the great leader built one of the largest empires history has ever known: he reunified the shattered kingdoms of Khwarezmia, unlike Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan, he conducted victorious campaigns in India, and reached as far as Ankara, where he defeated the Ottoman army.

Toward the end of its life, Samarkand, adorned with sumptuous palaces and gardens, was the capital of an area that stretched from the Volga to India.

He died of illness in the winter of 1405 in Farab, in present-day Kazakhstan, on the march towards China, in what would be his last military campaign. His body was embalmed, closed in an ebony sarcophagus and taken by his army to Samarkand for final burial in the mausoleum he built for his family.

Subsequently, his successors renounced their expansionist aims in Chinese territory, and at the same time weakened the empire due to internal struggles for the conquest of power.

3) Visit Samarkand

The historical monuments are incorporated into what is today to all intents and purposes a very modern city, almost completely rebuilt by the Russians; when they arrived, they found abandoned and partially ruined buildings. Despite this substantial difference from Bukhara and Khiva, in the presence of such grandeur the vestige of the magnificent past resurfaces, and manages to make us understand how this city was once the center of what was one of the greatest empires in history. Particular credit goes to the Soviet archaeologists and restorers, who were able to expertly recover these world heritage assets.

Before delving into the reading, we want to tell you how Oybek learned the Italian language so well. The reason lies precisely in Samarkand, where the University of Letters and Tourism has included the Italian language in its teachings, thanks to the decades of international cooperation between Italy and Uzbekistan. The university currently has several hundred students and dozens of professors, who every year dedicate their passion to the development of international hospitality and tourism.

Amir Timur mausoleum

We started visiting Samarkand right from the mausoleum of the great Tamerlane. From the brick portal, decorated with the ubiquitous glazed ceramics and muqarnas, you walk up to the door of the octagonal mausoleum, which has a splendid, fluted dome made of blue ceramics as its roof.

For Islamic architecture this building precedes the style of the Mughal tombs of Delhi and the Taj Mahal of Agra. Inside the Mausoleum there are wonderful golden majolica tiles that cover the burial place of Tamerlane, two of his sons, two nephews, including Ulugh Bek, and finally Mir Said Baraka, spiritual master of the emir.

Tamerlane was buried here alone because, dying in the middle of winter, the road to reach Shahrisabz was impassable due to snow. The tombs are located on a lower floor, while the decorative tombstones are visible, including the jade one of Tamerlane.

Oybek told us that according to a legend, Tamerlane's tomb is protected by a curse; whoever opens it and disturbs the conqueror's sleep will suffer misfortune.

The first to suffer his curse was Nadir Shah, a skilled Turkish-Persian leader and king. In 1740 he tried to remove the tomb by cracking the lid, but his advisors discouraged him from continuing because it was a bad omen. Despite his repentance, the king was assassinated.

The second was Stalin, who ordered the anthropologist Mikhail Mikhaylovich Gerasimov to open the tomb. The scientist found there the remains of a 1.72m tall man (a giant for the time), with the somatic features of Turkish-Mongolian ethnicity and with the bone conformation of a limping man (the Western word Tamerlane derives precisely from the union of Timur and Lang, which in Arabic means “the lame”). The stone was moved on June 19, 1941, and three days later Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. A year later his skeleton was buried according to the Islamic rite: the curse ended just before the decisive battle of Stalingrad.

Forewarned is forearmed: don't open that tomb!

Registan square

It is the symbolic place of Samarkand and probably of all of Uzbekistan, where the charm of oriental architecture attracts the gaze of every passerby.

The Registan, which means “place of sand” in Persian, was the center of the city during the Timurid era. The Soviets, to restore and use the complex built by Ulugh Bek, moved the lively bazaar to another area of ​​the city and paved the square, useful for rallies, public trials and celebrating the most important anniversaries.

Here the typical decorations of Islamic art reach their maximum expression, with the colors of the glazed ceramics ranging from light blue to green and blue. In front of all this artistic triumph one cannot fail to recognize human creativity and ingenuity.

The Registan is made up of 3 grandiose madrasas, which form a rectangle, open on one side, where hundreds of people and tourists gather every evening.

Left side of Registan Square: Ulugh Bek Madrasa (1420)

Built by Tamerlane's nephew, the madrasa became the center of science of the empire. The imposing Iwan, dotted with superlative enamelled decorations that recall Ulugh Bek's passion for mathematics and astronomy, is flanked by two minarets.

The madrasa contained the cells of approximately 100 students, classrooms and a mosque.

In place of the other two current madrasas there were a caravanserai and a hostel for wandering dervishes (similar in some ways to Christian mendicant friars), called Khanaga, which were replaced two centuries later at the behest of the emir Yalangtush Bakhadur by the madrasas erected to leave his everlasting mark on the world.

Right side of Registan square: Shir-Dor Madrasa (1636)

The madrasa is located opposite that of Ulugh Bek and avoids perfect symmetry with the first, prohibited according to Islamic custom. Of particular interest is its Iwan, whose glazed ceramics depict two tiger lions (Shir-Dor), which according to some interpretations are a reference to Zoroastrianism.

Front side of Registan square: Tillya-Kari Madrasa (1660)

It is the central madrasa which, thanks to its length (75 metres), closes the square and fills the geometric space between the first two madrasas described. Also built at the behest of the emir Yalangtush Bakhadur, its wonderful ceilings are decorated in gold leaf, giving rise to the nickname "gold-covered madrasa" (Tillya-Kari).

Bibi-Khanum mosque

The mosque was built and completed at the behest of Tamerlane, who raised the immense necessary funds thanks to the victorious Indian military campaigns. At the time the mosque was one of the grandest ever built, but being full of structural problems it did not withstand the test of time, atmospheric agents and the final earthquake of 1897. Before the arrival of the Russians and the subsequent restoration, the mosque and its domes were crumbling ruins. At the center of the mosque is the enormous lectern made of marble blocks that housed Osman's Koran.

According to legend, the architect fell so madly in love with Bibi-Khanum, one of Tamerlane's wives, that he completed the work only following the granting of a kiss, which however left an indelible mark on his wife's cheek. Tamerlane, upon his return from the victorious Indian campaign, discovered it and was so outraged that he had both killed and decreed the veiling of all women in the kingdom.

Shah-I-Zinda

Located in the heart of Samarkand, it is a complex of ornately decorated mausoleums and mosques decorated with mosaics and majolica in shades of blue and turquoise.

The name of the complex means “living king” and is associated with the tomb of Kus-ibn-Abbas, cousin of the prophet Muhammad. He arrived in Samarkand in the 7th century to spread Islam and was wounded in death, taking refuge in a well. According to legend, he is still alive, and a soldier of Genghis Khan who went to check the well came out blind.

The funerary complex is today the most visited pilgrimage destination in the country, where it will often happen to stop and admire the sophisticated patterns that make up the glazed ceramics, the various Iwans and the two blue domes that surmount the Qazi Zadeh Rumi mausoleum, which are said to host the tomb of Tamerlane's wet nurse.

Ulugh Bek Observatory

Continuing north from Shah-I-Zinda, you come across the remains of what was once the largest astronomical observatory in the world. Wanted by the king-astronomer Ulugh-Bek, the observatory had a large arch dug inside the hill which was used to determine midday. The dial is thought to have been 11 meters high and reached the top of the building that once dominated the hill.

Tomb of Prophet Daniel, Khogia Daniyar Mausoleum

It is said that Tamerlane, following his victorious military campaign in Iran, took some relics to Susa which were said to belong to the biblical prophet Daniel. Today the mausoleum, which borders the remains of the ancient city walls of Afrosiab (Marakanda), is an important pilgrimage destination. Also impressive is the centuries-old pistachio tree located next to the tomb.

Ruins of ancient Afrosiab

The ancient city of Marakanda, or Afrosiab, was located north of the Timurid monument district.

Here there is a museum which houses some objects from the Zoroastrian era and above all the remains of a wonderful Persian fresco. As previously mentioned, the ancient city was razed to the ground by Genghis Khan during his campaign of conquest in Persia.

4) One day in Shahrisabz

Tamerlane's hometown, Shahrisabz, is located about 90 km south of Samarkand. It can be reached after traveling along a road that climbs into a mountainous area.

In Shahrisabz you can visit the remains of the “White Palace”, Tamerlane's summer residence. Of the enormous structure, the two sides of what must have been the gigantic entrance portal remain standing. Think about how immense the palace must have been, recorded in the chronicles by the Spanish ambassador Ruy Gonzàlez de Clavijo, who described it as a large palace finely decorated with blue glazed ceramics and embellished with white marble.

Crossing a very well-kept modern garden you reach Tamerlane's crypt. However, the emir was buried in Samarkand because, dying in winter, the snow on the passes prevented him from reaching the city. Near the crypt there is the large Kok-Gumbaz mosque, which stands out for its blue enamelled domes.

On the way back to Samarkand we recommend stopping at a restaurant famous for its lamb meat, which is freshly grilled and served in large quantities.

Take note, it should be called Katta tosh tandiri.