Samarkand - the Jewel of the Silk Road

3 July 2022

The journey from Tashkent to Samarkand was probably our least memorable experience in Central Asia. The fast train (2 hours) was fully booked and so we journeyed on the slow train which took twice as long, in a smelly, dirty carriage withour air conditioning (it was 40 Celcius outside) or seats but with two upper and lower bunk beds to be shared with two other passengers. It was suffocating and interminable and as we watched the mountains and valleys dissected by the old Silk Road speed by, we could only console ourselves with the thought that it was probably even worse doing the same trip on the back of a camel.

When we finally arrived in Samarkand, we took a heavenly shower at our hotel, coverted from an old merchant house in the Old Town, before making a bee line for the Registan close by. We had been told it was something else but nothing had prepared us for what we were about to witness. We stared in jaw-dropping awe at the ensemble of majestic madrassahs (religious schools) before us, a near-overload of majolica, azure mosaics, shining restored tilework and vast, well-proportioned spaces. The monumental archways and minarets, made from millions of slim biscuit-coloured bricks and faced with glazed tiles in vibrant shades of blue, yellow and ochre, rose to the height of an English cathedral.

These three grand edifices are the centrepiece of the city and arguably the most awesome single sight in Central Asia. They are also among the world’s oldest preserved madrassahs, anything older having been destroyed by Ghengis Khan.

The Registan, which translates to ‘Sandy Place’ in the local Tajik language, was medieval Samarkand’s commercial centre and the plaza was probably a wall-to-wall bazaar. That the three madrassahs are still standing in a region buffeted by frequent earthquakes is a testament to the incredible craftsmanship of their builders. The Soviets, to their credit, worked very hard to restore these treasures. Photo exhibits in one of the madrassahs showed just how ruined the plaza was at the start of the 20th century.

By day, the madrassahs, once places of contemplation and groundbreaking scientific experiment, are turned over to shopping arcades where local women pleaded with us to buy cashmere from China, batik from Indonesia and sparkly shawls and spices from India. We returned at dark to the plaza to see the impressive sound and light show being projected. Truly a memorable spectacle.

Close by to the Registan, Timur’s Chinese wife Bibi-Khanym slumbers in what was once among the biggest mosques in the world, the restored pischtak, or entrance portal, guarding a 40-metre sea-green dome, the whole a miracle of proportion and colour that made the sky look vulgar.

Samarkand’s most moving site however is the Shah-i-Zinda, a stunning avenue of mausoleums, which contains some of the richest tilework in the Muslim world that dazzles the eye. The name, which means ‘Tomb of the Living King’, refers to its original, innermost and holiest shrine – a complex of cool, quiet rooms around what is probably the grave of Qusam ibn-Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet Mohammed, who is said to have brought Islam to this area in the 7th century. His shrine existed here on the edge of Afrosiab (the ancient site of Samarkand) for around seven centuries before Timur and his successors buried their family and favourites here near to the sanctity of the original shrine. The most stunning Timurid-era tilework dates from 14th and 15th centuries.

The most beautiful tomb is the Shodi Mulk Oko Mausoleum (1372), resting place of a sister and niece of Timur, of such exceptional quality that it merited almost no restoration. After remarkably surviving more than seven centuries with only minor touch-up work, many of the tombs were aggressively and controversially restored in 2005. As a result, much of the brilliant mosaic, majolica and terracotta work we can see today is not original.

Nearby, we visited the restored tomb of the Old Testament prophet, Daniel, a long, low structure topped with five domes, containing an 18m sarcophagus – legend has it that Daniel’s body grows by half an inch a year and so the sarcophagus has been enlarged over the centuries. His remains, which date from at least the 5th century BC, were brought here by Timur from Susa, Iran (suspiciously, an alleged tomb of Daniel can also be found there...)

Samarkand also houses the jade tomb of Amir Timur (yes, him again), which lies serene in the fluted-domed Gur-e Amir surrounded by engraved jasper friezes curlicued with Arabic script from an era before dots were added.

“Beauty will save the world,” Dostoevsky said, and these are the words that came to mind when visiting Samarkand, standing in the middle of the Registan surrounded by those monumental structures. The same words continued to echo through my head as I went through the massive Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, then as I discovered the myriad of mausoleums and monuments, intricate and gigantic at the same time. Blue, green, turquoise tiles make them all the more eye-catching, the colors a reflection of Uzbekistan’s stunning nature: its jade lakes and deep green mountains.

Discovering Samarkand, the silk road and its remnants, must be like discovering the pyramids of Egypt for the first time, giving the same fantastical feeling of finding fragments of history preserved through time.

Our Insider Tip: When you’ve had enough of the 5 M’s (Mosques, Madrassahs, Mausoleums, Minorets and Monuments) and you just need to chill for a couple of days, check out the Eco Green Guest House, a 30 minute taxi ride from the Registan. A calm, garden oasis with its own refreshing pool at a very affordable price. The hosts made us feel like family. So much so that the owner even invited us to his birthday party. The wierd thing was that it turned out that is was for men only, apart from Mylene. The women were not even invited, even the owner’s wife who was preparing the food was not allowed outside. While the older men ate, laughed raucously and knocked back vodka shots at an alarming rate (and yes, I had to as well), the younger men sat quietly, drank tea and in the middle of the party suddenly got up and went to pray. Apparently, the older generation, brought up during Soviet atheist times, is less devout. All in all a birthday party like no other but if you want some local color, being in a guest house is unbeatable.