Samarkand: Day 1

According to our guide, Lola, Samarkand means "city of fairy tales," and boy is tat an accurate description. Samarkand was pretty much the center of the Silk Road. Just about every caravan that crossed from China to the West passed through Samarkand. We set off first for Registan Square, a complex of three madrasahs. When we pulled up, there was an audible gasp from just about everyone on the bus. The site was amazing.








The first one, which when looking at the three is the one on the left (the second picture, above), was built by Amir Temurning's grandson, called the Madrassa of Ulughbek. It is the oldest of the three and was built at the very beginning of the 1400s, before Christopher Columbus's parents were born. Then the one across from it was built, it's on the right as you look at the three, and it is called the Sherdor Madrasah (the third picture above). Then they built the third one, the one in the center called the Tillokori Madrasah (the first picture above). All three were built in the 15th century.

When you stepped inside, you were in these gorgeous courtyards that were just as decorative as the facades.





I really can't describe the feeling of the place. Maybe our new friend who blessed us with holy smoke can:


We went inside each of the three madrasahs, and probably the most remarkable was the center one, the one that has that huge blue dome on top of it (first picture of today's blog). Inside was painted and had such incredible mosaics, I can't even imagine the level of creativity and craftsmanship that went into them... At any rate, here's the inside of the dome:





These pictures really don't do it justice, but thankfully I had my real camera with me as well and took several hundred photographs today, so I'm sure I had a couple of good ones in the bunch. After the square, we took an electric car to the Bibi-Khanym Mosque. Construction began at the end of the 1300s, and was completed at the very beginning of the 1400s. Bibi-Khanym was the wife of Temurning, who conquered the greater part of the known world at that time. She had the mosque created for her husband while he was away on one of his many campaigns. Here is the result, over 600 years later.








Truly remarkable! After this visit, we went to lunch at a local restaurant, and the. Visited the site were the observatory of Ulughbek used to be. It is now a museum, celebrating the many astronomical discoveries of this scientific thinker. It also housed an ancient sextant. Here is the museum:


Here is the building that houses the ancient sextant, that is a huge, huge piece of equipment, probably about two stories (or more) tall, but is partially buried...


Our next stop was the cemetary, and a series of mausoleums called the Shakhi-Zinda Memorial Complex of Islamic Architecture. There are over 30 mausoleums from the 11th & 12th centuries on the complex. The styles of the mausoleums were Azeberjani, Persian, and local. My favorite was the local style, since they used all the mosaic tiles, and no painting whatsoever. Here are a few pictures of the cemetery and the mausoleums.




















After this, we headed back to the hotel for a little downtime before dinner. We had dinner this evening with a local family at their exquisite home. All-in-all, an amazing day full of incredible sites and some of the friendliest people you could ever hope to meet!


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