The blue city of Samarqand

Samarqand is one of the oldest cities in Central Asia, and is spread over three sites — the ancient settlement known as Afrosiab; the Timurid portion; and the modern part of the city. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, Samarqand is a contemporary of Rome and celebrated its 2750th birthday in 2007.

Located along the Great Silk Road at the crossroads of routes leading to Persia, India and China, Samarqand has drawn people from all over. It also attracted itinerant travelers like Marco Polo and Ibn Batuta, as well as purposeful conquerors like Alexander the Great and Shaybanid Khan alike. The former came out of curiosity; the latter to plunder or rule over its vast wealth. Samarqand drew me in as well, a modern-day traveler. If you have been following my Uzbekistan journey on this blog, then you will recall that it was a picture of a blue dome in Samarqand that had sparked off a desire to visit it.

I was in Samarqand for two days and got a glimpse of a fascinating past filled with myths, legends and historical events. I also saw many blue domes and many more works of art that were in different shades of blue. The amount of blue was enough to dub Samarqand as the blue city and use that title for this blog post as well ! 🙂 .

Though there are claims that the first settlement in the region came up around 1500 BCE, archaeologists have been able to date the earliest settlement to only around the 6th-7th century BCE. This was the Afrosiab, named after the legendary king who is believed to have ruled this place (and whose son-in-law established Bukhara). When Alexander arrived here in 329 BCE, it was a prosperous and populous city. Afrosiab was the capital of the Sogdian Empire and was ruled by Zoroastrian kings till the arrival of Arab invaders in the 8th century CE. The on site Afrosiab Museum in Samarqand has a stunning collection of wall murals and artifacts recovered from the site.

With the arrival of Qutaiba ibn Muslim and his Arab forces in 712, CE violent and dark days descended upon Samarqand. Islam was established in a brutally quick and violent manner after which Samarqand rose again in prominence. Till the 13th century, Samarqand was ruled by a succession of dynasties — Western Turks, Persian Samanids, Karakhanids, Seljuq Turks, Khorezmshahs, etc. In spite of this frequent change in the ruling dynasties, Samarqand thrived and its population numbered more than what it is today.

In 1220, Chenghiz Khan marched towards Samarqand and ravaged it to such an extent that it is rumoured that the city’s water canals turned red with blood. The next century was a period of uncertainty as Samarqand tried to rebuild itself.

And then along came Amir Timur who made Samarqand the capital of his Timurid Empire in 1370. Over the next 35 years, Timur transformed the city into the region’s economic, cultural and intellectual centre by building madrassahs, mosques, palaces, caravanserais, and mausoleums. Artisans and builders were brought from Delhi and Damascus to give reality to Timur’s vision. Ulugh Beg, Timur’s successor continued with the building spree and built a madrassah at what is now the Registan Square and also an observatory. The 14th and 15th centuries were the most significant period in the city’s development.

The Timurid Empire disintegrated with the death of Ulugh Beg and Babar’s inability to hold on to it. The Shaybanids succeeded the Timurids in the 16th century, but decided to made Bukhara their capital. With this move, Samarqand lost its importance and a decline set in. A series of earthquakes and fall in Silk Road trade further accelerated this decline.

It was with the coming of the Russians in 1868 that Samarqand’s fortunes changed yet again. Building activity resumed and this time the style was European — with broad, tree-lined roads and building designs — setting the groundwork for the modern city that Samarqand is today. The Russians also undertook repair and restoration of its many  monuments and this has been continued by the Uzbekistan government after their Independence.

My two days in Samarqand were sorely insufficient to cover 2000 plus years of history and I realised early on that I would have to prioritise on what I wanted to see. I decided to focus on the Timurid monuments in Samarqand, with some non-Timurid ones and a museum thrown in as well. I had to be content with seeing the old city of Afrosiab from a distance and experience modern-day Uzbekistan through the few walks I took in the neighbourhood of my B&B and while driving through the city.

The main sites I visited were the Registan Square Complex, Bibi Khanum Mosque, Gur Emir Mausoleum, Ulugh Beg Observatory (and museum), Khoja Daniyar Mausoleum, the Shahi Zinda necropolis and the Afrosiab Museum. I felt like a I was undertaking a mad dash when I moved from one monument to another, but thankfully, once I was there it felt like time had stopped still and I could experience the visit in peace and without feeling pressured.

Presenting the many monuments and the museum I visited in Samarqand as well as the shades of blue expressed on the monuments. Clicking on any of the photographs will enlarge it, and you can then use the left or right arrow keys to navigate the photographs and their accompanying captions.

The large blue ribbed dome of the Bibi Khanum Mosque, so typical to Samarqand

The Sher Dor Madrassah, one of the 3 madrassahs that makes up the Registan Square Complex. For more details, read my previous blog post.

The Bibi Khanum Mosque is considered to be the largest mosque in Central Asia and was built between 1399-1404 by Amir Timur after a successful military campaign.

This enormous marble Qur’an stand is placed in the grounds of the Bibi Khanum Mosque. Amir Timur is supposed to have carted it all the way to Samarqand following a successful campaign against Baghdad.

The Bibi Khanum Mosque, named after one of Amir Timur’s wife, was earlier known as the Juma or Friday Mosque. It was built to out rival every other existing structure then in the region. Its exteriors were covered with tile work forming both geometric and calligraphic patterns. Much of what we see today is heavily restored.

According to excavations carried out on site, the dimensions of the Bibi Khanum Mosque were 100 x 140 m.

Detail from the blue ribbed dome of the Gur Emir

The grand and luxurious interiors of the Gur Emir. The ornamentation has been done using high relief, gilded papier mache.

A huge stone vat with an interesting story attached to it can be found in the grounds of the Gur Emir. It is said that before any military campaign or battle, pomegranates would be crushed against the rim of the stone basin to fill it up with its juice. All of Timur’s soldiers would line up to dip a cup and drink the red juice. Amir Timur believed that the colour helped his soldiers overcome fear of blood. The rim of the stone basin still has indentations from thousands of pomegranates being pressed to extract juice.

The Gur Emir, which means grave of the ruler, is the mausoleum of Amir Timur.

A reproduction of a diary of observations of planetary movements at the on site museum of the Observatory. It also housed a vast library filled with books that Amir Timur brought back from his campaigns and also those sourced by Ulugh Beg himself. Nothing remains of that collection today. Whether it was destroyed or hidden away, there is no record.

The observatory was 3 storeys high and had a gigantic marble sextant for measuring the movements of the sun, moon, stars, and planetary bodies. Found during the archeological excavations, the sextant has points and digits carved on it to indicate the degrees of a circle.

Amir Timur was a collector. He collected people, artifacts, books and remains of Holy Men ! The Khoja Daniyar Mausoleum or the Mausoleum of Prophet Daniel is one such example. It is believed that Amir Timur brought back the hand of Prophet Daniel so that Samarqand could be blessed. The hand was buried in a suitable spot at the outskirts of the city. According to legend, the grave has grown in the centuries since then and is currently 18 ft long !

Entrance to the Kutlug Oko Mausoleum, built between 1360-13-61. It is believed that Kutlog was one of the wives of Amir Timur.

Another view of interiors of the Gur Emir. A sunburst pattern is visible here.

Originally, the mausoleum was meant for Timur’s grandson, but now holds the graves of Amir Timur himself, his sons Shahrukh and Miranshah, grandsons Mohammad Sultan and Ulugh Beg, and great grandsons. The central grave is that of Amir Timur, which is made from a solid block of dark green jade.

Detail of the inside of a tiled dome a mausoleum

I heard about Ulugh Beg for the first time at the British Museum in London. The exhibit was a jade cup he trusted would prevent him from being poisoned. Instead of talking about his expertise as a mathematician and astronomer, the Museum chose to focus on his superstitions. Sorry, Mirzo Ulugh Beg for having believed in that completely. I’m honoured to have made your acquaintance in Samarqand and look forward to reading about your invaluable contributions to the wold of science and mathematics.

Prophet Daninel or Khoja Daniyar is considered to be a holy man and his mausoleum is a pilgrimage site for Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. A holy spring at the base of the Mausoleum is considered to have healing powers and no visit is complete without partaking of some water. The tree that you see in this picture is an old pista tree that had been given up for dead. It suddenly bloomed again in 1966 and is considered to be a miracle by the faithful.

The Shahi Zinda ia vast necropolis that has seen burials for the last 1000 years or so. It is an extremely picturesque monument complex that was built in mid 11th century CE and represents building activity and styles over 900 years.

Ulugh Beg built an observatory on a hilltop at Samarqand in 1420. It was destroyed after his death in 1449 and lay forgotten till its rediscovery in 1908. The observatory had rooms decorated with illustrations of the skies and heavenly bodies.

Calligraphy and geometry – it’s all there as are blue and gold.

Have you seen anything more exquisite than this? The colours, the 3D effect, the design – it is perfection in blue !

This is perhaps the simplest and least embellished monument at the Shahi Zinda.

All the mausoleums at the Shahi Zinda are on either side of a narrow path, each one more breathtaking than the other.

The Mausoleum of Kusam ibn Abbas, the cousin of the Prophet Mohammad one of the earliest preachers of Islam in Central Asia, is perhaps the most significant and also the most lavishly decorated. Built in the 11th-12th centuries, it also has a mosque within the complex.

Archeological excavations at the Afrosiab have led to many interesting finds, which are now on display at the on site museum. My favourite was the wall murals recovered from the palace of Varkhuman, the Sogdian King. These depict preparations for sacrifice, processions and receiving foreign dignitaries. This one shows a detail from a procession leading towards a sacrifice.

When I arrived in Samarqand on that cool and magical evening in September 2015, I had been in Uzbekistan for a week. I had already visited four cities and seen numerous monuments — each more beautiful than the other. The blue tile work, the architecture, the calligraphy, the history, legends, myths for each city and monument was fascinating and I left each city with a “it can’t get better than this” and arrived at the next one with “this can’t be better than the previous one(s)”.

I was always proved wrong and Samarqand was no exception. In fact, Samarqand offered the best and the grandest of all that Uzbekistan has to offer. I arrived in the city with very high expectations and when I left I was reminded of Alexander the Great’s reaction to Samarqand (or Marakanda as the Greeks referred to the city) when he visited it. He is believed to have said that:

Everything I have heard about Marakanda is true, except that it’s more beautiful than I ever imagined.

That one sentence captures the essence of my visit to Samarqand. 😀

My Dream Trip Uzbekistan Series:
Dear Uzbekistan | A city called Nukus | Art in the Desert: The Savitsky Collection at Nukus | Mizdahkan: A city for the dead | 3 forts & a dakhma | Itchan Kala of Khiva | There’s something about Bukhara! | Monumental Bukhara | The Jewish Heritage of Bukhara | Shakhrisabz: The home town of Amir Timur | The Registan Square of Samarqand | The blue city of Samarqand | The silk paper factory at Konigil | The surprise & delight that was Tashkent | Uzbekistan: The food & markets special | The Uzbekistan trip planner |

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