I didn’t know much about Samarkand. Well, you need to know about this guy, Timur. He was a conquerer in 14th century and a descendant of Genghis Khan. And so, there are lots of historical buildings in Samarkand, the capital city of Timurid Empire (guess who started it, haha!)
And this Shah-i-Zinda complex was built around that time. Let’s go way back to 14th century!
There are three portions of this complex. The lower, middle and upper. You’d start with the lower part. And you’d basically walk on one street having historical buildings (mainly mausoleums and tombs) next to you.
Right at the entrance of the lower part was this beautiful pavilion with a beautiful ceiling. Of course, repainted. The architecture was pretty unique, having a ceiling at almost 1.5 floor high. It’s pretty pleasant to sit here and imagine what it was like more than 600 years ago.
And actually, this was the craft done 600 years ago!
Timur’s commitment to the arts is evident in the way he was ruthless with his enemies but merciful towards those with special artistic abilities. He spared the lives of artists, craftmen and architects so that he could bring them to improve and beautify his capital. He was also directly involved in his construction projects and his visions often exceeded the technical abilities of his workers. (Source:Wikipedia)
And yet continuing to the middle part of Shah-i-Zinda (It’s literal translation: Long live the King!) amusable did I know how amazing the blue color is!
Just look at how amazing the details and the usage of blue are! I just didn’t know that back in 14th century, people could have such vision and ability to create something so impressive and beautiful.
There are signboards which talk about the significance of these mausoleums. I guess if you are really good at history, you’d know who those people were!
You can take a leisure walk for at least an hour. Although if you walk very fast from the entrance to the upper area, it’d take you not more than 5 minutes. This is just to give you a size of this complex from 14th century! The onion-head looking mausoleum is the beginning of the middle section. And this photo was taken at the last stop at the upper portion.
And this is the beautiful upper part! It’s quite stunning!
If you visit Uzbekistan, Samarkand is more impressive than Tashkent and Bukhara. And then in Samarkand itself I’d say Shah-i-Zinda Ensemble surprised me more than Registan!
I’m not sure how much the entrance ticket is, or the timing. But when you get to Samarkand, you can ask other people.
Traveling Mega
