Samarkand Favorites

Favorite thing: Some websites will give you further reading and information. Some are of travel agencies, but they still have a lot of interesting information.

Travel Agency Orexa

Sairam Tours - Samarkand

Samarkand’s website

Samarkand at UNESCO

Timur’s Samarkand by Mark Dickens, with a lot of interesting reading, sights to see, architecture and Timurid period.

The most facinating and very detailed site about Samarkand’s architecture however is available only in German. But I can highly recommend to read it, as Bernhard Peter has put a lot of effort and knowledge into it:

Architecture of Samarkand , and then Samarqand.

(I might add more websites in the future, as I plan to go back)

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Favorite thing: Now how many days should you plan for Samarkand ? As I am living in Germany with that unbelievable amount of 30 plus days to spend for holiday per year, I don't really think about tight time schedules.

But let me give it a try:
Samarkand can be visited in 1 day, provided the visitor is used to seeing-all-in-1-day visits, and that most of it is “done” by car (taxi or group bus). But this implies minimum 1 night stay, better 2 nights.

For a one day visit, I would suggest the following tour:
Start early and visit:
Bibi Khanum Mosque (to get the gorgeous morning light conditions),
then walk northeast to Shah-i-Zinda,
grab a taxi and visit Ulug’bek Observatory,
go back with taxi to Gur-I-Amir Mausoleum and Timur’s statue, if of interest.
Walk back to Registan to visit the medressas and try and climb on Ulughbek Medressa Minaret in late afternoon, just before sunset.
Inside Ulug’bek Medressa, maybe do some souvenir shopping and finish your evening with either the folklore dance show in Sher Dor Medressa or with a dinner at a nice restaurant.

Fondest memory: .
Best time for photos:
Bibi Khanum Mosque should be a must in the morning, with light shining through the wooden window into the main sanctuary;
Shah-i-Zinda is best also in the (late) morning, as most of the colourful mausoleums face east.
Gur-i-Amir is time-independent, as the most intresting sights are inside.
Registan is best in late afternoon and evening.

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Favorite thing: As mentioned earlier, Samarkand can roughly be divided into two parts: the eastern more old city with the ancient monuments, stretching northeast from Registan. And the modern part, which is west to southwest of Registan.
Hotel Samarkand is a good landmark, if you think, you got lost. You can see this almost from everywhere west of Registan. How ever, it is no longer in use as hotel (as of mid 2006).

Walking distances:
Registan to Hotel Samarkand: approx. 30 minutes
Registan to Shah-i-Zinda: approx. 45 minutes

I also add a screenshot of GE (scale referring to 1 km), to give you an idea how far the sights are located. You might decide upon taking a taxi for visiting some monuments.
Samarkand is definitely not as “concentrated” as Bukhara.

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Favorite thing: A concept, which I liked very much and of which I hope it will last for long, is the one of Samarkand students helping travellers. They are obviously studying tourism at the University of Samarkand and, assisted by their professors, have set up a small stand at the State Museum of Cultural History, just east of Registan. They have a whole pile of information of any kind, such as transport, restaurants, accommodation, sights, prices and recommended travel agencies.
They won’t charge anything, you even get something to drink (tea or soft drinks) and you can have a nice chat with the guys and girls. Needless to say that they speak pretty well English.

Definitely something to do and to support; the kids are nice and it is a both way learning.

Favorite thing: This is the difficult question that must be asked with regard to the restoration/conservation of many of the world's great heritage sites.
Here in Samarkand there are many people who are worried about the effect of the over-zealous "restoration" of the Shah-i-Zinda complex in particular. This magnificent group of buildings is currently listed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO but this status (and the funding that comes with it) is threatened by the work that is currently being done, much of which is insensitive to the the ancient buildings here to such a point that it amounts to total rebuilding. Whilst no-one would wish to see them fall back into the state of neglect that old photographs show, the rush to restore them certainly seems to need to be tempered with the realization that sensitive conservation would be a better path to follow.

Favorite thing: After the brilliant coloured tiles and elaborate gold of the interior decoration of Samarkand's buildings, the delicate painted walls and domes of the Dorus Tilivat in Shakhrisabz were quite surprising. White walls were covered in formally laid out small painted panels of intricate geometric patterns, gardens and trees that were very reminscent of the patterns on Chinese porcelain with blue the dominant colour. The domes were equally delicately painted with blue tracery and red and gold floral patterns -more Persian perhaps than Chinese. The whole effect was so light and airy - a complete change from the strong colours seen in similar buildings in Samarkand where deep blues and gold leaf predominate, or Bukhara where walls that were painted were mostly done so in shades of apricot, cream and red.

Favorite thing: Grouped together in bronze as they never could have been in life, the great astronomers of the classical and mediaeval periods, Ptolemy, Tychoe Brahe, Copernicus and Galileo join the Uzbek scientist-king, Ulugh Beg, to ponder the astral globe. They make a charming group, all dressed alike in Uzbek robes, standing in the entrance to the medressa built by Ulugh Beg on the east side of Samarakand's Registan.
Ulugh Beg's astronomical legacy was to plot the co-ordinates of over 1000 stars, to develop the parameters by which eclipses could be predicted and to measure the stellar year so accurately that his measurements come within one minute of modern electronic calculations. His passion for science, coupled with his weak rule, brought him into dispute with deeply religious factions in Samarkand and ultimately led to his assassination at the behest of a dervish court and the co-operation of his son.
Nowadays he is held in the highest regard in Uzbekistan, as much for his learning and scholarly achievements as for the wonderful buildings he commissioned for his city.

Favorite thing: It is the "new" Samarkand which was built after Tamerlan destroyed the old Afrosiob to create a capital city really showing that it is the centre of one of the biggest empires the world has ever seen.

Fondest memory: It is great to visit all these wonderful Mosques and Madrasas, to admire the innumerable variations of wonderful mainly blue glazed wall tiles, often reminding the finest oriental carpets. See the travelogues!