Samarkand – Where History and Beauty Converge

Dating back to the 7th century BC, Samarkand (Samarqand in Uzbek) is one of the oldest cities of Central Asia (alongside Bukhara). It lies very close to the Tajikistan border and was also an important city in the Persian empire. Alexander the Great captured the city in the days when it was called Maracanda. It then passed to the Persians, Turkics and Mongols (as it is the case with most cities, Genghis Khan came and destroyed the entire place). The city gained its peak during Amir Timur’s time – becoming a cultural and religious centre. In fact, Ibn Battuta (the inventor of #wanderlust) called Samarkand “one of the greatest and finest of cities, and most perfect of them in beauty“. Today, we dive right into this beautiful Silk Road city!

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Day 5

Our train from Bukhara was at 3:25pm and we would reach Samarkand at 5pm. This time we did not have to endure the desert heat – it was the Afrosiyob high speed air-conditioned train. The journey was super comfortable – the leg room was so much that we could not figure out what to do with it!

The Samarkand station was about 20 mins away from the hotel we were going to stay at, the Muzaffar hotel. This time we took Yandex. Samarkand was a much bigger city than the ones we had been to so far – it is the second largest in the country. There was a tram running on the roads. If not for the heat, one could easily think this was somewhere in Europe! Our hotel was located very conveniently close to the famous Registan square. We reached our room and decided to go first to the Gur-e-Amir mausoleum.

The Yandex taxi that we took, brought us through some tiny roads, almost fell into a ditch on the road and stopped near a huge wall. The driver declared that we had reached. By now, we were used to the random routes taken by Yandex drivers and figured out that we were somewhere on the periphery. We were standing right behind the mausoleum! We asked him to keep going and we found a hole in the wall which brought us to the front entrance.

The mausoleum was dedicated to Amir Timur. It was designed beautifully from the outside. The inside was even better – everything was covered in gold and it was indeed a spectacle to be witnessed! Timur, or Tamerlane, was the founder of the Timurid Empire in the 1300’s. He is known to be among the greatest military leaders of all time. At the time, leaders had the title of “Khan”. But he went for the title “Amir”, which meant commander or general. One of his bloodiest campaigns was the capture of the Delhi Sultanate (ruled by the Tughlaqs at the time). Later his descendent, Babur, established the Mughal dynasty in India.

We walked along the gardens in front of the mausoleum towards the giant Amir Timur statue. The entire area was maintained in splendid condition. We continued walking along the boulevard which had gardens running down its entire length. You can find videos on our Instagram highlights of Uzbekistan.

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Our destination for dinner was the Old City restaurant. We ate some manti, a roll with cabbage + rice + beef + paprika, shorba, a veg creamy soup and lagman soup. The food was good (except for a veg/non-veg faux pas)

We took cabs back to Registan square and on the way we saw some of the hotels we had considered booking during our trip research phase. We were glad we chose one that was at a walking distance from Registan. You will always find this in our blogs about travel and stay bookings – pick places that are close to the planned itinerary. If you are in the city for a layover, stay close to the airport/train station. If the sightseeing places are clustered together, stay close to that cluster.

We reached right in time for the light and sound show at 9pm. The entire complex looked beautiful in the night light! The light and sound show started off well but it got a bit monotonous after 10-15 mins as there was no storyline.

We walked back to our room. Both my sister and I had less than 5% battery on our phones. After one wrong turn and one phone getting switched off, we managed to get back to the room with just 1% battery on one phone. It was a close shave – we were almost stuck outside at 10 in the night with no network. Moral of the story – kill the Yandex app after using it, it drains the battery too much!

Day 6
We had a late start today. It was 8am by the time everyone woke up. We went and had breakfast by 9am (at the basement room in our hotel) and left by 9:45am for Registan square. We were glad once again that we picked a hotel that was so close to all the attractions.

We bought our entry tickets and walked in. The entry tickets were such that we could stay inside till 12 midnight. But once we exit the complex, we had to pay again to enter it. Kind of like a single entry visa. The gardens next to the monuments were very well maintained with roses blooming.

The monuments themselves were easily the best we had seen so far in terms of their grandiose and maintenance. We first entered the Sherdor madrassah (which had some paintings of tigers on the facade). The courtyard inside had plenty of trees and shops lined the entire outer ring. There was a small room inside which used to be where students would sit and read. It was now converted to a museum with old photos and paintings. It really transported us to the time when this used to be a fully functioning madrassah. There were photos of Registan during the winters with snow everywhere – something we could not even imagine!

We spotted one person sitting on a bench inside reading about the history of the place – a very good way to spend time enjoying the weather and atmosphere inside. Luckily it was a cloudy day and it was perfect for outdoor sightseeing.

Next stop was the madrassah right opposite this one – the Ulug’bek madrassah. When you’re in Uzbekistan you just cannot miss the work of this great visionary scientist/astronomer. We had seen one in Bukhara – one of the oldest structures there. The one here was significantly better – the courtyard was more vibrant than the one in Sherdor. There was a coffee shop on the first floor above. Inside was a museum dedicated to the works of Ulug’bek, his love for astronomy and some statues of him working with his students. He had created an astronomical observatory in Samarkand – the remains of which still existed (we were not visiting it this time). Read more about Ulug’bek in the Bukhara blog.

We bought a couple of stuffed toys made with Ikat style cloth and moved on.

Finally we went to the Tilla Kari madrassah. This one was much more simple and had fewer shops inside. We spent about 1.5 hours in the entire complex. But it is well worth spending 2-3 hours inside. We got plenty of good views of the monuments with the sun coming out of the clouds and revealing a different set of shades. We had seen some people who had stayed back inside till the sound and light show yesterday but it did not seem worth it – the views look better when seen from a distance as the monuments are so huge that it is tough to see them all in one view.

We finally understood why people say that once you have been to Samarkand, everything else looks like a smaller or weaker version of these madrassahs. Good that we started our trip from Khiva and Bukhara before coming here. Yaay!

We picked up some gelato on the way out and got back to our room for the 12pm checkout.

We took a quick bathroom break, packed our luggage and took cabs to the Shah-i-Zinda ensemble.

The two most common cars we had travelled in during this trip – Chevrolet Lacetti and Cobalt. The roads were filled with Chevrolets! Most of the basic hatchbacks were Chevrolet Sparks.

We arrived soon at the Shah-i-Zinda. This was one of the most unique monuments we had seen so far in this trip and was definitely worth the visit! We were greeted by steep steps at the entrance but the climb was totally worth it. Mausoleums lined both side of the path on top. Some of the entrances were elaborately painted in blue. Some of them had simple insides. But others were painted beautifully on the inside too. Most of these mausoleums belonged to the family of Amir Timur.

We took cabs to Bibi Khanym mosque. It was a walkable distance from Shah-i-Zinda but not possible in this heat. Once again, our cab dropped us in a narrow lane behind the mosque!

We first went to the chaikhana next to it and had lunch – Kazan kebab, bread, Greek salad and kompot. Kompot had become our drink of choice in this trip! It was nice and fruity and refreshing but not too sweet. Perfect for a hot day and it totally made sense why everyone had a one-litre jug of it on their tables.

We skipped the mosque and went to Siab bazaar. It was also well organized like the market in Bukhara. We bought some souvenirs as the prices were quite good.

We then took the electric auto/taxi thing back to Registan. We reached out hotel by 3:20pm, freshened up, took our luggage and left for the train station. Parth was really looking forward to sitting on this but sadly, he was asleep at this time!

Our train to Tashkent was also the Afrosiyob. Parth ran all around the Samarkand station and had a jolly good time. He even shared his biscuits with another kid there. We said good bye to the city and continued on our journey.

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Check out our other Uzbekistan blogs here:

• The Roughest Start We’ve Ever Faced – a cancelled flight, a delayed one and many other challenges kicked off our trip to Central Asia
• Time Traveling in Khiva – A Hidden Treasure of Uzbekistan
• Enchanting Bukhara – A Treasure of the Silk Road. Join us as we explore this oasis
• Samarkand – Where History and Beauty Converge
• Tashkent Tales – The Uzbek “Metro” Capital
• The Uzbek itinerary – plan your perfect trip to Uzbekistan