Glorious Samarkand at last

Registan Square

The weather turned glorious today and I was finally able to explore Samarkand. After a big breakfast at the Jahongir, I set out to Registan Square.

Just as I bought my ticket I was accosted by someone wanting if I wanted to go up one of the minarets; he put the pressure on by saying that I’d have to do it quickly before a delegation of dignitaries turn up shortly.

Yep, that worked. I parted with too much Uzbek money (but it was not very much in the international sense) and climbed the spiral stairs to the top of one of the minarets of Ulugbek Madrassah. The light was wrong and it would have been better doing it in the afternoon as the Sherdor Madrassah would be nicely illuminated then.

I came back down and explored the rest of the Ulugbek Madrassah which was largely now taken up by craft stalls.

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Next I visited the middle madrassah, known as the Tilla Kari. Well, well, well, the mosque attached to it was just absolutely stunning with the gold and blue painted interior.

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After the Tilla Kari, I paid a token visit to the third madrassah at the Registan, namely the Sherdor. From Registan, I wandered to Bibi Khanum’s mosque not far away. While the exterior was beautiful, it hadn’t been restored to the same extent as those at the Registan. And the interior was off-limits as it was crumbling. A peek through the barrier showed it was completely unrestored. I didn’t bother with the Bibi Khanum’s mausoleum opposite as it was bad value for something I had seen too many of.

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Shah-i-Zinda necropolis

Next I continued to the necropolis and cemetery Shah-i-Zinda. This turned out to be the second “Wow” of the day after the interior of Tilla Kari. I climbed up the stairs from the entrance to be stunned by the most gorgeous turquoise tiles that formed the facade of several mausoleums. The narrow passageway was flanked by several other mausoleums but opened up further along. This led to the contemporary cemetery, which even though Islamic, had the Russian influence in terms of black stones with etched portraits.

I had done all three sights by lunchtime. I had been worried that with the wet weather yesterday I wouldn’t be able to see all that Samarkand had to offer. I opted to have a rest and a kebab in the early afternoon before heading out to Timur’s mausoleum in the opposite direction from my earlier explorations.

Like the other sites, the tiled exterior was gorgeous. The interior of the mausoleum was pretty stunning too again in gold but somehow the lighting and my camera didn’t play nicely to achieve good photos.

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In the evening, I went out to the new town by taxi with a Singaporean and a Tunisian-French. We got dropped off to a highly recommended restaurant. It turned out to be full with a banquet. They recommended another which was also full. We walked to one next door which was able to accommodate us.

We had a good dinner and despite the posh surroundings, it was still very reasonable. There was a dance floor and some women did get up to do some belly dancing in contemporary clothes. It was a pleasant evening with company instead of my usual solitary on-the-road evening.

On the way back, I got dropped off at the Registan. I had wanted to wander around and take some night photos closer to the buildings. I wasn’t allowed into the courtyard then I realised that a sound-and-light show was starting.

It was a pretty amazing performance with stories being projected onto the buildings, and at other times the outlines of and patterns on the buildings highlighted by laser lights (I think). What a way to end my stay in Samarkand, even though I didn’t get the night shots that I had wanted.