Ancient Civilizations
Uzbekistan
Alexander the Great called it the most beautiful city he had ever seen. He was not wrong.
The Forgotten Atlas — Field Report
Alexander the Great called it the most beautiful city he had ever seen. He was not wrong.
Samarkand is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth, with a history of settlement extending back 2,700 years. It sat at the convergence of the Silk Road trade routes connecting China to the Mediterranean, and the wealth of that traffic funded buildings that were the most elaborate of their age. Alexander the Great took it in 329 BC and said it was even more beautiful than he had imagined. Timur (Tamerlane) made it the capital of his empire in the 14th century and built the Registan — the central plaza — with a complex of tiled madrasahs that remains the most architecturally ambitious public space in Central Asia.
The Registan at dusk, when the tile work changes colour in the fading light — this is one of the moments that justifies the entire concept of travel.
The Forgotten Atlas
The tilework of Samarkand — turquoise and cobalt and gold, in geometric patterns of extraordinary precision — was produced by craftsmen brought from every corner of Timur's empire. The Bibi-Khanym Mosque was, when completed in 1404, the largest mosque in the Islamic world. The Shah-i-Zinda necropolis is a street of mausoleums in the most intense tile colours you will see anywhere, leading to the tomb of Kusam ibn Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet. The Ulugh Beg Observatory, built by Timur's astronomer grandson, contained a sextant 11 metres in radius that produced stellar measurements not surpassed for 200 years.
Samarkand today has a surreal quality: extraordinary medieval monuments surrounded by Soviet-era planning and very recent development. Uzbekistan opened substantially to tourism only in 2017, and the infrastructure has developed rapidly since then. Hotels that were unimaginable a decade ago now sit in view of the Registan. Direct flights connect it to European cities. The city is not yet overrun — the crowds are light by the standards of comparable sites — but the window of experiencing it in relative quiet is narrowing.
Fly direct to Samarkand or connect via Tashkent. Three days covers the monuments. Combine with Bukhara (3 hours by fast train) for the complete Silk Road experience.
The central plaza. Three madrasahs in a U-shape, each covered in tile work. The most impressive public space on the Silk Road.
The necropolis. A street of mausoleums in extraordinary colours, built over several centuries. The most atmospheric site in Samarkand.
The ruins of what was once the largest mosque in the world. The scale is still impressive even in partial ruin.
The ancient mound that contains the ruins of pre-Timurid Samarkand. The museum here has extraordinary 7th-century wall paintings.
The flagship restaurant for traditional Uzbek cuisine in the city. The plov (rice pilaf) here is made the proper Uzbek way — in a massive kazan over fire.
Good Uzbek food in a courtyard setting near the Registan. The shashlik and the samsa (baked meat pastries) are reliable.
Every Friday morning a market sets up in the city where enormous kazan pots of plov are sold from early morning. The social event of the week. Non-negotiable.
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