Samarkand

From Wikinfo

Samarkand (Samarqand or Самарқанд in Uzbek) (population 400,000) is a city in Uzbekistan, capital of the Samarkand region (Samarqand Wiloyati).

Gur-i Mir Mausoleum

History

The city of Samarkand was founded prior to the 3rd millennium BCE.

Lying on the trade routes (silk road) between China and the Middle East, Samarkand prospered. Alexander the Great captured the town in 329 BC (see Afrasiab, Sogdiana).

Under Arab rule (from the 7th century CE), the city flourished as a trade center until the devastation of the city by the Mongols led by Genghis Khan (1220).

Timur (Tamerlane) (1336 - 1405) was born at Kesh, situated some 50 miles south of Samarkand. Samarkand became the capital of his empire, which extended from India to Turkey.

Ulugh Beg, grandson of Timur, becamee the shah's governor in Samarkand in 1409.

In 1868, the city came under Russian rule, and it became the capital of the Uzbek SSR in 1925 before being replaced by Tashkent.

Sights

The central Registan, bounded on three sides by spectacularly fronted buildings, forms perhaps the most magnificent sight in Samarkand.
Shahi-Zinda, a series of tombs mostly belonging to Timur and Ulughbek's family and to a cousin of the prophet Muhammad.
The Biblical prophet Daniel's tomb lies in the city, with remains carried there from his original burial place. The tomb has a length of roughly 70 feet, because the scientists who had measured the body length before and after the journey found that the body had grown; they assumed that this process would continue.
The main bazaar around the Bibi-Khanym Mosque.
The city also contains numerous former mosques and madrassas.