19 May 2014 Tashkent to Samarkand

After breakfast we took the Afrosiyob express train (08:00-10:10) to Samarkand. The station was deserted except about a hundred people lining up to get on our train, for which we had first-class seats, quite comfortable with a small table between us. However, the train rocked too much to read or work on a computer or one would get motion-sickness.

After arriving in Samarkand, our first stop was the Guri Amir Tomb with the remains of Timur the Great (known as Timur the Lame or Tamerlane in the West), his two sons and grandsons, including Ulugbek.

Guri Amir complex entrance 

Horse hair flag

Yurt like dome

Guri Amir complex 

The coffins of these dynastic leaders lie in this surprisingly modest mausoleum topped by a fluted azure dome. Timur had built a simple crypt for himself at Shakhrisabz, and apparently had this one built in 1404 for some of his sons and grandsons. When he died suddenly of pneumonia while leading his troops to China in 1405 he was buried here, because the passes to Shakhrisabz were snowed in. Timur is called Amir Timur here and is greatly respected as a warrior and leader, and is referred to with a reverence that normally would be reserved for a religious leader. Most of the visitors to his tomb are Uzbek pilgrims rather than foreign tourists.

Honey comb plaster detail

The tiles are in blue which at the time was the color of mourning. Cobalt, lapis, azure, and turquoise blue are all used in vegetable and floral motifs together with calligraphy. As we were seeking more information on the architecture of Timur's tomb, we came across an excellent article, "The Heavenly City of Samarkand" by Roya Marefat. We have just extracted below several of the sentences from her article.

"The geometric and vegetal ornamentation derived from an even older Middle Eastern art and architecture, but they came into wider use after the rise of Islam because of the faith's prohibition against the making of figural images. The floral and vegetal motifs had great symbolic significance in tomb architecture because of the association of the garden with paradise in Islam. Appropriately, the Arabic terms for tomb and garden are the same word: rawza. The vaulted roof of the iwan in Gur-i Amir is richly decorated with a honeycomb design called muqamas, the individual cells of which are in square, rhomboid, almond- shaped, and barley grain patterns. In the Gur-i Amir the cascading muqarnas is made of stucco and is decorative rather than structural. Applied to both the interior and exterior of buildings, the muqamas symbolized the vault of heaven and the complex composition of the cosmos.The tomb chamber itself, octagonal on the outside, is capped by a high drum on top of which sits a melon-shaped dome. The dominant color of the exterior tiles is blue, ranging from light turquoise to deep cobalt and lapis. Because blue was the color of mourning in Central Asia, it was the logical choice for most funerary architecture. But the preference reflected a range of other, more favorable symbolic associations. As well as being the color that wards off the evil eye (a function that it still performs on the doors of many Central Asian houses), blue is the color of the sky and of water, the latter being a precariously rare resource in Central Asia and the Middle East. Abetting this clearly overdetermined fondness for the color is the fact that the region abounds in such minerals as lapis and turquoise. Just as Timurid architecture absorbed the influence of Persian and Indian building, so the great Timurid works came to influence the architecture of the Safavids in Iran and of the Mughals in India. Babur (1483-1530)-the founder of the Mughal empire, remained proud of his Timurid lineage, and he and his descendants became prolific builders, embellishing their cities with monuments and gardens. Whether Babur or envoys from the Mughal court were responsible for the transfer of Timurid ideas, or whether they came with Persian architects, the Timurid building style had a decisive imprint on some of India's more prominent structures. Similarities between the Gur-i Amir and the Taj Mahal include octagonal exterior plans, bulbous domes, iwans that punctuate the central part of both buildings, and their four minarets. "

Another aspect is that the dome reflects the roof structure of the traditional yurt. A long stick with the horsehair "flag" (tuq) was also placed within the tomb to reflect Timur's tradition as a cultural (although not actual) descendent of Genghis Khan of scarificing a horse.

Registan Square

Our next stop was the Registan Square, probably the most famous landmark in Central Asia, and rightfully so. It consists of three main buildings surrounding a square that used to be called "registrant" because it was sandy from an old riverbank and was used as a bazaar.

Ulugbek Madressa on the west side is the oldest of the three buildings, finished in 1420 under Timur's brilliant grandson and ruler for some 40 years, Ulugbek. As noted above he incorporated what he had learned from the conquest of India and Persia in a style which became known as Timurid, and which later influenced the Indian Mughal buildings such as the Taj Mahal, built by one of his descendants. Beneath the little corner domes were lecture halls, and at the rear a large mosque. About 100 students lived in two stories of dormitory cells, most which are still in good condition. They mostly contain souvenir and antique stores now.

What a beautiful place to study!

The other buildings are imitations by the Sheybanid Emir Yalangtush. The entrance portal of the Sher Dor Madressa, opposite Ulugbek's and finished in 1636, is decorated with roaring tigers, and since animal images are not permitted in mosques, it can never be used as such., but could be used as a school. In between is the Tilla Kari Madressa, completed in 1660, with a pleasant, garden-like mosque courtyard. We were lucky that there were very few tourists. The local tourists request pictures of us and we oblige because of all the pictures we take of people. Usually it is the women, old and young that want a picture with Leslie. Only a couple of times have young men asked for a picture with David and once some young girls wanted both of us in the picture.

Bibi Khanum Mosque - The gigantic congregational mosque a few hundred yards to the northeast of Registan square was finished shortly before Timur's death, and he had built it in honor of his favorite wife, Bibi (Queen) Khanum, who was Chinese and never bore children.

It is one of the jewels of his empire. It finally collapsed in an earthquake in 1897 but has been restored after Uzbek independence from the Soviet Union.

We checked in to the brand new Emirhan Hotel, which is opulently decorated but has things that are missing (coffee heaters) or that do not work (elevators). After a dinner out with our guide, we hit the sack early.