Samarkand is the Silk Road city everyone has heard of, and it earns the reputation. Officially on the Silk Road from the second century BC, its heyday ran through the 9th to 12th centuries before a gradual decline by the 15th. Amir Timur made it his capital and showpiece, and the architecture he commissioned, the blue domes, the vast madrassas, the tiled facades, is what most people come to see. They are not disappointed.
The city's pre-Islamic history runs deeper than the monuments suggest. The Sogdian people made Samarkand a centre of Central Asian culture long before Islam arrived, and the Tengrist tradition, worship of the god of the blue sky, shaped the steppe cultures that surrounded it. Uzbek cuisine, widely considered the best in Central Asia, is at its most confident here.
Sights & Culture
Registan Square
Three madrassas framing one of the great public squares in the world. The tilework, the scale, and the symmetry are all exactly as advertised. Go early if you can; the light on the facades in the morning is the best argument for adjusting your schedule around a building.
Shah-i-Zinda Necropolis
A street of mausoleums built between the 11th and 18th centuries, running uphill to the tomb of Kusam ibn Abbas, cousin of the Prophet Mohammed. The tilework here is more intimate than Registan, closer, more varied, accumulated over centuries rather than designed as an ensemble. One of the genuinely affecting places on the whole trip.
Bibi-Khanum Mosque
The vast mosque commissioned by Timur, rebuilt after significant deterioration. The scale of the original ambition is still legible even in reconstruction.
Mausoleum of Islam Karimov
The tomb of Uzbekistan's first president, who died in 2016 and is buried here in his home city. A significant site for Uzbeks, and an interesting counterpoint to the medieval monuments surrounding it, nation-building of a different century using the same instinct for monumental architecture.
Ulugh Beg Observatory
At the highest point of Samarkand, the observatory built by Ulugh Beg, Timur's favourite grandson, astronomer, mathematician, and ruler. He mapped over a thousand stars with an accuracy not improved upon in the West for another century. The man was, by most accounts, remarkable, and the site reflects that.
Restaurants & Bars
Emirhan
Good food, but the view earned the visit — looking out over the ruins from the restaurant terrace is the kind of thing you don't forget. Eat here at dusk if the timing works.