Historical monuments of Samarkand

Oriental Silk Carpets from Samarkand

The silk is one of the most valuable fabrics in the East. The tradition of making garments of silk, silk carpets has been passed from generation to generation from ancient times there. Art of carpet weaving was the most valuable skill, because each house had several silk carpets. Today, Iranian, Azerbaijani and of course, Central Asian schools are the most famous and skilled schools of silk carpet weaving.

Art of weaving silk carpets is one of the oldest in our region. One can see many beautiful silk carpets, hand-made by Uzbek female masters, in Bukhara, Samarkand and Khiva.
Mostly, girls do all the work. They paint yarn, then dry it and begin the main work. Manufacture of silk carpets is time-consuming occupation. It may take from 1 to 6 months, and sometimes more than a year. It depends on the size and complexity of the carpet pattern.
Travelling in Samarkand, one should visit the Hudzhum silk carpets factory. Here, the very process of carpets manufacturing can be observed directly to see the unique patterns of carpets and, of course, order one of them.
Mostly young girls are employed in the factory, they create amazing carpets of the most vivid and varied colors. Here one can see items with ancient ornaments, made according to the secret technologies passed from generation to generation.
Uniqueness of the products of this factory is also in the fact that the colouring materials are made of organic colors: walnut, pomegranate, indigo, madder.
During a visit to the factory one can order one’s favorite carpets, and also girls can make a unique carpet based on specific sketches.
History of Samarkand
Samarkand is one of the most ancient cities of the world. As other first centers of human civilization - Babylon, Athens and Rome.It has rather favorable climate, hot summer and mild winter. In historical events of ancient time the earliest mention about Samarkand dates to 329th year B.C., By that time Samarkand was a big city with crowded population, developed crafts, trade, and culture.
According to new archeological excavations scientists concluded that Samarkand was founded much earlier than Greek-Macedonian conquer and already during the Akhemenids State it was quite developed city (6-4th centuries BC). Samarkand is more than 2750 years old.
Over the history the city saw half-savage tribes of Sacs and Massagets, flanks of Greek-Macedonian army, hordes of Kara-Kidani. The city resisted the invasion of Arabic commanders - followers of Islam religion. Hordes of Ghengis-Khan attacked and ruined the city. Samarkand became the capital of Great Empire of Tamerlane, ranged from Ind River to Bosfor.
After Timur’s death all his empire came to the power of his children and grandchildren. Samarkand devolved to Ulugbek, Timur’s grandson. Ulugbek ruled Samarkand during 40 years. For the whole history Uligbek was the most peace-loving ruler. He almost did not participate in aggressive campaigns over ruling his state. He visited other countries many times but only to study traditions, culture, and customs of those countries. He was great scientist, astronomer, and mathematician; therefore he brought many scientists from different countries for science development in his county.
14-15th centuries were the period of the Golden Age of the city. The city was surrounded by strong wall, new streets, paved of stone and blue domes of majestic ensembles. Most of these objects survived our days and are the main symbols of the city.
Like most cities of Central Asia Samarkand is divided into two parts: old and new city. New part is an administrative part of the city, including industrial and cultural centers, high educational institutions. Old part of the city includes historical monuments, shops, workshops, old private houses. Generally, an excursion is held in the old part of the city. Samarkand numbers 670 thousands people. This is multinational city, more that 100 nations live in Samarkand. It takes second place in Uzbekistan by number of population and territory.