Samarkand Day 2 & 3
Visit to Samarkand for a second day then the next day, visit to Shakhrisabz which is a city about a hundred kilometers away.
Muslim cemetery
I climbed a hill in Samarkand to see the city from above. There was a cemetery. Almost all the tombstones have a photograph engraved on them; it's quite strange.
Nécropole de shakhi zinda
Shah-i-Zinda, meaning "the living king" in Uzbek, is a necropolis. An avenue of mausoleums built between the 11th and 15th centuries, covered in turquoise, cobalt, gold, and white mosaics. It is the burial place of Timur's relatives, his wives, and his generals.
An artisan of that time would take between three and five years to cover the facade of a single mausoleum.
Hazrat Khirz Mosque
This place is named after Hazrat Khizr, a legendary saint revered in the Muslim world as the protector of travelers and the guardian of the water of life.
Bibi Khanym Mosque
Built upon Timur's return from his campaign in India, it was intended to surpass all other mosques in beauty. It is named after Bibi Khanym, Timur's favorite wife.
Timerlane was so impatient and demanding during its construction that he personally came to the building site, throwing meat and coins to the workers from his apartments to make them work faster.
The mosque was so large and built so quickly that the structures soon began to crack and partially collapse just a few years after its inauguration. It was restored in the 20th century.
Chakhrisabz - Ak-Saray, le palais blanc
Built at the end of the 14th century, this palace was so immense that the entrance gate alone was over 80 meters high. Tamerlane had a phrase engraved on the mosaic of the facade: "If you doubt our power, look at our buildings."
In reality, the palace and its gates collapsed just a few years after construction was completed due to an earthquake. It was built too high to withstand the construction methods of the time. Today, only two towers of the entrance gate remain.
Local bread and small shop
Here, the bread is baked in a traditional oven where they stick the dough to the oven wall (by hand, using just an oven mitt). Once baked, they remove it with a large shovel.
Next to it, there was a sort of small stall by the side of the road. The white balls by the roadside are a local cheese. They dry the milk until only a very hard little ball remains. It's not bad, but nothing extraordinary either.
In addition to that, they sell solid mud (the Tupperware container with the brown and gray pieces) which is apparently good for the bones. I tasted it; it's mostly disgusting.
Statue de Tamerlan
Tamerlane was a 14th-century military leader. He founded the Timurid Empire and conquered parts of Central Asia, the Middle East, and northern India. He commanded an army of 800,000 men and killed millions. He was also a great patron of the arts and architecture. He had all the books in the libraries he looted measured and copied before burning cities. Shakhrisabz is his birthplace. Although he made Samarkand his capital, it was here that he chose to erect his monuments to demonstrate his power to his homeland.
Today, he is considered a great national hero of Uzbekistan.
Local crafts
Next to the mosques, etc., there are small workshops where Uzbek looms are displayed. They are still used today.
Restaurant tandoor
The restaurant doesn't have a proper dining room. It's more like platforms overlooking the valley where you eat cross-legged.
Chakhrisabz - Dorus Saodat
This place was intended to become Tamerlane's mausoleum, but he died before the end of construction during a military campaign towards China in the winter of 1405. The passes leading to Shakhrisabz were blocked by snow, so he was buried in Samarkand in an emergency, and the mausoleum was never used.
Chakhrisabz - Dorut Tilavat
The Dorut Tivolat complex ("House of Recitation" in English) is a group of buildings constructed in the 14th century on the orders of Tamerlane which contains the Kok Gumbaz mosque (literally "Blue Dome", they didn't exactly go out of their way) and mausoleums including that of Tamerlane's father.