Historical monuments of Samarkand

Subsequent history

In 1740, Nadir Shah tried to carry off Tamerlanes sarcophagus, Nader idolized Timur, the most successful conqueror from Central Asia. He imitated his military prowess and especially later in his reign cruelty, but it broke in two. This was interpreted as a bad omen. His advisers urged him to leave the stone to its rightful place.

The second time the stone was disturbed was on June 19, 1941 when Soviet archaeologists opened the crypt. The anthropologist Mikhail Mikhaylovich Gerasimov was able to reconstruct Tamerlane's facial features from his skull, and it was also confirmed that he was 172 cm in height, a giant for his day, and would have walked with a pronounced limp. Further historical information about the assassination of Ulugh Beg and the authenticity of the other graves was also confirmed. Timur's skeleton and that of Ulugh Beg, his grandson, were re-interred with full Islamic burial rites in November 1942, at the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.
Nearby monuments

Some consider the Gur-e Amir, Ruhabad mausoleum and Aksaray mausoleum to be a combined ensemble because of their closeness.

Ruhabad (14th c.) is a small mausoleum and is said to contain a hair of Prophet Muhammad. The one-story madrasah now accommodates craftsmens' shops. There is a functioning mosque next door to the madrasah. All three combine into one good-looking ensemble).
The Aksaray mausoleum (15th c.), unrestored, is located on a quiet street behind Gur-e Amir .The Ak-Sarai Mausoleum of the 1470's is located to the southeast of Gur-Emir. It is deemed a male necropolis of the last Samarkand Temurids. The mausoleum was built under the order of the Temurid governor Abu Sa'id (1451-1468/9).
In 1457 Abu Sa'id conquered Khurasan and moved the capital to Herat. In 1468/9 he was killed in Azerbaijan fighting against the Turkmen. The mausoleum has an underground octahedral crypt. Some headless person is buried in a special niche by the eastern wall. It might be a tomb of Ulugbeg's son Ab-dullatif (1449-1450) who was executed for murdering his father.


Registan Square

During centuries Registan Square was the center of Samarkand. The word Registan means “sand place”. There was a river running there many ages ago, before building the first Madrassah on the square. Years passed, the river dried out and left lots of sank there, that was the first place where the first Madrassah was built in the beginning of the 15th century and named Registan square. As the Madrassah was first built, all the holidays, parades, festivals and Sunday bazaars took place. The ensemble consists of three Madrassah: Ulugbek Madrassah (15th century), Sher – Dor Madrassah (17th century) and Tilla-Kari Madrassah (gold covered)(17th century). Madrassah– is the Muslim high educational institution. Only the boys from reach families studied there. The training lasted for 10, 12, 20 years. It was up to the discipline the student selected. The main discipline for all of them was Learning Koran. The rest of the subjects were not obligatory and could be selected by students.