Well, I didn’t exactly have a good weather on my first day in Uzbekistan. While Samarkand being the first city I visited in Uzbekistan, Gur Emir Mausoleum was the first attraction I visited in Samarkand.
Buried here a great conquerer, Tamir. The tomb was intended for his grandson Muhammad Sultan. But when Tamir died from a battle to China in 1405, he had to be buried here instead of his own tomb in Shahrisabz as it was snowing. He was buried here, so was several family members (including a spiritual teacher).
About the architecture,
It occupies an important place in the history of Persian-Mongolian Architecture as the precursor and model for later great Mughal architecture tombs, including Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi and the Taj Mahal in Agra, built by Timur’s Persianised descendants, the ruling Mughal dynasty of North India. It has been heavily restored.
I felt it was fine just looking from the outside. The mausoleum was destroyed and reconstructed. Well, but we still paid money to go inside. (Why?)
It was just tombs. Well, Tamir’s tomb was this dark green one. It was opened during Soviet Union Era in 1941 (re-buried in 1942). And well, it sort of related to the curse (though I doubt he had the capability to make a curse) on his inscription, “Who ever opens my tomb, shall unleash an invader more terrible than I.” Well, on the same day his tomb was opened, Hilter launched invasion against Soviet Union. This might be interesting: 15 Facts About Tamerlane’s Curse
Although his actual sarcophagus is right below this tomb, and it’s not open to the public.
This video Silk Road II – Episode 12: The Glory of Samarkand showed it (at 15:00) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIIKInCin8A
Okay, and next we went to Bibi-Khanym Mosque.
The mosque was established by Tamir (yes, almost everything in Samarkand was related to Tamir) in 1404 after he looted Delhi. It was the largest mosque in Central Asia. The Mosque was name after his wife, Bibi Khanym. (Kind of like the story of Taj Mahal!)
Well, we again paid to enter inside (why?) In the courtyard there was a stone stand Quran. And lots of Uzbeks inside taking photos! I think Uzbeks really love Tamir and everything related to him.
And the Mosque was very beautiful in design. It’s been restored of course. In the video I mentioned earlier, you’d see workers still working on restoring the tiles. But I didn’t see any construction in March, 2013. And it looked pretty well-restored to me.
And lots of spots for taking photographs! It looks so exotic! If you like taking photographs, it might be worthwhile to come inside. But if you don’t care about photography that much, I personally felt this attraction was more or less similar to Registan. Comparing to the prices in Uzbekistan, all the entrance tickets including camera fees seemed expensive. And you needed to buy entrance tickets to all these attractions. And actually, both Gur Amir Mausoleum and Bibi Khanym Mosque were both ‘okay’ attractions to me. But well, if you are already in Samarkand, why not visit these places? Just don’t over expect. And enjoy the friendly local tourists who get very excited to see foreigners!
And well, a little bit of research about Tamir would be helpful. Now I’m not exactly sure if these photos were taken inside Bibi Khanym (Ooops, sorry!)
We did Gur Emir Mausoleum, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, and Shah-i-Zinda Ensemble in a day. It was a wonderful day to explore these attractions.
Traveling Mega
