Today we rose early and were at Registan square before 8 AM already. The sun rises at 5.30 AM so it was well past sunrise, but nevertheless there were no people on Registan square at 8 AM. We had the place to ourselves. Unfortunatly no coffee either, so we just sat there , took pictures and marvelled at the different light in the early morning setting a different tone from yesterday again. It is one of those sights that puts you in awe every time, regardless how often you see it.
Getting hungry we headed back to the guesthouse for a very well lined up breakfast of Uzbek delicacies. Somsas, local bread, jams and honey as well as various little bakery items invited us to taste them.
The plan for today was to explore Samarkand mainly on foot, skipping Registan as we had been there twice already. For the evening we had reserved a table at nearby restaurant with a great rooftop terrace, overlooking the back side of Registan. So we started with a quick car ride to University boulevard, an Uzbek version of the Champs Elysées. Over 100 m wide they not only cater to two side walks, two lanes of car traffic each way, four lines of trees, separating two sandy walking paths inside the car lanes as well as a central concrete parade walk way in the very middle. Beautiful old trees provided shade from the oncoming daytime heat.
We strolled along the wide boulevard, passing by the Samarkand University and a grand building reminiscent of St. Petersburg, which was used for conferences among the Central Asian states. Eventually, we reached the seated statue of Amir Timur.
There are three such statues scattered across Uzbekistan: the equestrian one we had seen in Tashkent, the seated Amir Timur in Samarkand on his throne, and a third standing statue in Shakhrizabz. While we were there, some Uzbek students took their graduation photos with Timur as backdrop and engaged in conversation with us.
Right next to it was the Gur-e-Amir Mausoleum. Uzbeks are very fond of their Mausoleums and we will see plenty of them while being here. Here is the final resting place of Amir Timur, the great ruler who never lost a battle during his lifetime.
He was not supposed to be buried here but in his mountainous home town of Shakhrizabz. He built this Mausoleum originally for his grandson and proposed heir who had died a year earlier, but it came otherwise and fate would have it that Amir Timur died of pneumonia in the winter and the mountain passes to bring his body back to Shakhrizabz were showed in. They decided to bury him in Samarkand instead.
The mausoleum is an impressive complex not only because of the several grave markers inside, also they used to house a Medrassa and an ancient guest house for traveling merchants. It has a very pretty tiled and domed roof and like the other buildings here intricate blue time mosaic work decorating the walls and arches of the monuments.
A plain black marble marker marks Amir Timurs grave in the crypt beneath. As the Mausoleum was a popular spot with tourists, particularly from Russia as we discovered, we felt it was time to move on to our next destination.
To avoid the crowds from the buses and to go against the tourist flow, we opted for a car ride across town to the Necropolis of Shah-i-Zinda, which tends to have the highest number of visitors in the afternoon, as it is often the endpoint of their tour.
Shah-i-Zinda lies on top of a hill that serves as a cemetery and can be best described as an avenue of Mausloeums. Shah-i-Zinda means Tomb of the Living King.
A shrine that is said to date back to the 7th century housing the grave of king Qusam ibn-Abbas, who is said to have brought Islam to this region originally. The Mausleums are known for the best examples of Timurid-aera tilework of the 14th and 15th century.
Several of Amir Timurs relatives, wives and highly decorated generals are buried here and gotten their own Mausoleums. Each consisting of a fairly large chamber, most of the beautifully decorated with different tilework – inside and outside.
When we had visited the necropolis, we decided it was time for a light lunch, obligatory tomato salad included and finally Esther got her vegetable somsas which tasted very similar to Indian vegetable samosas. Nothing exciting but simple and nourishing food. Chris had beef Shashlik, this time it was just beef that was not coated in sheeps fat at the same time.
After lunch we wandered to the most important and historic mosque in Samarkand, the Bibi Khanym Mosque. Timur built it with his spoils he got when invading India and this was his signature mosque that he wanted everyone to see and recognize his grandeur. Over 40 meters tall, it was one of the biggest mosques of the time. First a big entrance portal with two round minaret towers led into a large courtyard. The complex house two smaller mosques on the right and left hand sides and one for summer, one for winter, as only one was heated at the time. The fourth side was taken up by the main mosque flanked by two hexagonal minaret towers.
An earthquake in 1897 made the mosque collaps partially. It was restored in the 1970s but nevertheless the main prayer room remains closed to the public due to big cracks and lack of funds to renovate the rest of it properly. Nevertehless it is an impressive monument to Timur‘s reign.
We had one more stop planned before heading back to our guest house: the Siob Bazaar next door to the mosque. It is Samarkands largest bazaar and like Chorsu Bazaar in Tashkent, it has the usual sections for spices, fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, eggs bakery items, household goods, textiles and plants. We love the smell wafting around us of the different sections.
Chris acquired a bunch of local tomato seeds that we’ll be planting at home, hoping they’ll be as flavorful as the tomatoes here. The taste of the tomatoes here is simply delightful, bursting with aroma, incomparable to those at home. Esther did some textile shopping as real silk textiles are a bargain here. Our young student guides had a blast watching us haggle as a German „Nein!“ is easy to understand and we felt we should get at least a 50% discount from the first price they told to us. There was a lot of „Neins“ when the merchants only came down little by little until we gave a little too and that was it. Esther walked out of a shop over one Euro difference but was called back to finish the sale at her agreed price. It still was a good deal for the merchant we were sure. A bit of haggling is always fun.
We quenched our thirst with freshly squeezed orange and grenadine juice and headed back to our guest house from there. As it was quite warm by mid afternoon, low 30°C. We wanted to rest up a bit. Chris had a business call – and before heading out to our dinner on the roof top terrace we once again passing by Registan square at a different light.
After a wonderful dinner we turned in early as we‘ll be leaving for Nuratau Mountains in the morning.
