Samarkand

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We are here in Samarkand, one of the oldest continually inhabited cities and an important stop on the Silk Road for centuries. It was destroyed by Genghis Khan’s armies in the 1200’s and then in the 1400’s it was the capital of the Timurid Empire and the heart of the Islamic Renaissance. The most famous site in the city is Registan Square. There are three massive madrasas - today that means basically the Islamic equivalent of a seminary but at the time it was a university where they also studied things like science and history. The oldest of the three buildings was built by the grandson of Timur, the founder of the Timurid Empire. He was mainly an astronomer and is kind of a national hero of Uzbekistan (his portrait is in the cosmonaut themed subway station). The other two madrasas were built in the 1620’s and 1650’s. We also went to a cemetery where there are a number of mausoleums from the early part of the Timurid Empire, mostly for Timur’s relatives and wives. The cemetery also houses the burial site of one of Muhammad’s first cousins, but we did not see that area because it sounded like there was a religious service happening inside. I heard there was good birdwatching in an area called Afrasiyab. It’s what the bullet train company in Uzbekistan was named after (not sure where the name comes from). That area is the archeological site where they’ve found some remains of Samarkand from before the destruction by the Mongols. The ruins were not particularly interesting to look at, but it was still cool to walk around and be almost totally alone along with the millennia old ruins. No birds however, since it was approaching the hottest part of the day. We are further west than Tashkent and the city is pretty much in a desert (Registan actually means “sandy place”). We’re staying about 5 minutes away from Registan so we’ll definitely be back and send more pictures but it’s hard to capture the scale and grandeur!

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