Dark sights in Samarkand
- Sort by:
- Popular
-
Guri Amir Mausoleum
Timur, two sons and two grandsons, including Ulugbek, lie beneath the surprisingly modest Guri Amir Mausoleum and its trademark fluted azure dome. Timur had built a simple crypt for himself at Shakhrisabz, and had this one built in 1404 for his grandson and proposed heir, Mohammed Sultan, who had died the previous year.
But the story goes that when Timur died unexpectedly of pneumonia in Kazakhstan (in the course of planning an expedition against the Chinese) in the winter of 1405, the passes back to Shakhrisabz were snowed in and he was interred here instead. As with other Muslim mausoleums, the stones are just markers; the actual crypts are in a chamber beneath. In the …
reviewed
-
Ishratkhana Mausoleum
If you prefer your ruins really ruined, it's worth the slog out to the Tomb Raider-style, 15th-century Ishratkhana Mausoleum. With a preponderance of pigeons and an eerie crypt in the basement, this is the place to film your horror movie.
reviewed
-
Khodja Abdi Darun Mausoleum
Across the street from the Ishratkhana Mausoleum is the Khodja Abdi Darun Mausoleum, which shares a tranquil, shady courtyard with a mosque and a hauz (artificial stone pools). To get here take marshrutka 22 or 32.
reviewed
