Shahi Zinda - The name, which means Tomb of the Living King, refers to it's original, innermost and holiest shrine-a complex of cool, quiet rooms around what is believed to be the grave of Qusam ibn Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad who is said to have brought Islam to this area. This makes it an important place of pilgrimage, and we saw many more Uzbeks there compared to foreign tourists. Except a few very early tombs at the end, the tombs belongs to Timur's and Ulugbek's family and favorites.
Some of the finest tiles in the world are located in these tombs, which are sometimes quite different from those nearby, providing a feast of color.
Next stop was Afrosiab,the ruins of ancient Samarkand (Maracanda) and the Museum. The walls of the ancient city lie only a few hundred yards from the Registan and were quite obviously bordered by a river on one side, where the body of the Old Testament Jewish prophet Daniel's remains are believed to lie in a tomb that somehow keeps growing longer, and it is already 18 meters long. Afrosiab had been left to ruins, but in the 1960's an accidental discovery during road construction of beautiful 7th Century AD frescoes showing merchants and local royalty led to further digging, although much of this buried city has yet to be excavated. The museum held a copy of the frescoe, much pottery from the site, and a record of at least 11 levels for the city starting in 500 BC or perhaps even earlier. The second floor of the museum was unfortunately closed.
We then drove further out of town to Ulugbek Observatory.
The grandson of Amir Timur, Ulugbek was less interested in conquering the rest of the world than he was in understanding the stars and planets. He became more famous as an astronomer than as a ruler. In 1420, he built the best equipped observatory for that time, and he shared his work and knowledge with astronomers to the east in China and with Europeans in the west. Because astronomy and more broadly science and the arts were frowned upon by some of the religious authorities at the time, who actually succeeded in convincing Ulugbek's son to have him beheaded, the Observatory was buried after his death and was only re-discovered because it was written about in an old manuscript and unearthed in 1908.We also went to the Imam Al Bukhariy Mausoleum, a quiet place, and Hazrati Doniyor Mausoleum.
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