Samarkand

Today let me take you to another city on the ancient Silk Road. A beautiful and a rich one. Actually, on those days it was on the central position between China and Mediterranean. It was the capital city of mighty Tamerlane. It was the the city where another great conquer Alexander the Great fell in love with a slave woman. The mother of his one and only child. He named this place Marakan. It was the city where Marco Polo walked on her streets with curious eyes.

The main center of the city is Registan square. Three beautiful madrasahs (schools) are the jewels of this square. As it is the case everywhere in uzbekistan, inside of these old schools are full of small shops wher you could find lovely hand made products..

As it was the capital of Tamerlane, he had built large palaces, mosques and his tomb in this city. But as he was an impatient ruler, he wanted all the buildings to be completed at his lifetime. Unfortunately as speed is more important than duration, most of the those buildings started to collapse soon. Here is the Bibi Hanim mosque completed in an incredible period of 1,5 years with the golds Tamerland brought back from India. Bibi Hanim was the Chinese wife of Tamerlane..

Another fascinating place in the city was its necropolis - Shah-i Zinde..Most of the tombs belong to the women's of the Tamerlane family. Later the city cemetary developed around this historical area. A fascinating place where they have painted the face of the death to blues and turquoises..

But as always my favorite place was where I could find the living. No better place than the market to find them...