Dark sights in Central Uzbekistan
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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
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A
Ismail Samani Mausoleum
This mausoleum in Samani Park, completed in 905, is the town's oldest Muslim monument and probably its sturdiest architecturally. Built for Ismail Samani (the Samanid dynasty's founder), his father and grandson, its intricate baked terracotta brickwork - which gradually changes 'personality' through the day as the shadows shift - disguises walls almost 2m thick, helping it survive without restoration (except of the spiked dome) for 11 centuries.
Behind the park is one of the few remaining, eroded sections (a total of 2km out of an original 12km) of the Shaybanid town walls; another big section is about 500m west of the Namozgokh Mosque.
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Saifuddin Bukharzi Mausoleum
Two kilometres east of the centre on Bakhautdin Naqshband, the mammary-like twin domes of the Saifuddin Bukharzi Mausoleum tower over the delicate little Buyan Khuli Khan Mausoleum. With sheep grazing in the foreground and a massive cooking-oil factory looming in the background, this spot might as well be a metaphor for Central Asia. Taxi drivers know this place as 'Rayon Fatobod Bogi'.
The architectural highlight here is the 14th-century majolica on the smaller mausoleum, resting place of a Mongol khan. The larger mausoleum was built over the grave of Saifuddin Bukharzi (1190-1261), poet founder of an influential Sufi order.
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B
Turki Jandi mausoleum
Deep in the old town is the tiny, decrepit Turki Jandi mausoleum favoured for getting one's prayers answered. It's the resting place of a holy man known as Turki Jandi, his two sons, several grandsons and numerous other relations. Its importance is signalled by the hundreds of other graves around it - allegedly in stacks 30m deep! It's under slow, devoted restoration and was closed when we visited.
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C
Chashma Ayub 'mausoleum'
Nearby Ismail Samani Mausoleum in Samani Park, is the peculiar Chashma Ayub 'mausoleum', built from the 12th to 16th centuries over a spring. The name means 'Spring of Job'; legend says Job struck his staff on the ground here and a spring appeared. Inside you can drink from the spring. It is now, sadly, overshadowed by a glistening new glass-walled memorial to Imam Ismail al-Bukhari next door.
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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.
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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.
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