Samarkand, our guide told us, is known as "the woman with make up on". All of the 5 Ms (mosques, madrasahs, minartes, mausoleums and monuments) were elaborately tiled and decorated. It is the second largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 300,000. It was the capital of Temur's empire in the 14th century and the home of our guide, Temur.
This is Temur's mausoleum (the ruler, not our guide). He originally built it for his grandson who died at a young age, but, according to legend, Temur died the day after it was completed, so he was buried there as well.
Just a side door.
The dome above the entrance to the mausoleum. It is papier mache that was painted in rare pastels.
The tomb room inside the mausoleum.
There are about a half dozen people buried here; Temur, 2 of his grandsons, Temur's spiritual advisor, an astronomer and a few others. Temur's tomb is the dark one in the middle. It is the largest piece of jade in the world.
The inside of the tomb room is also decorate in papier mache and ornately painted. This is looking up inside an arch and to the domed ceiling.
This is a museum to the Uzbek astronomer Ulugbek. On this hill he had an observatory with a 40 meter sextant built in the 15th century. He recorded many stars and estimated the distance to the moon within 20 meters.
Just below the observatory, a group of women were selling bread. Judy and I went down for a photo opportunity. This woman spoke a bit of english and was incredibly sweet (like almost every person we encountered in Uzbekistan).
She asked us questions like if we were married or had kids, where we were from, our names, and translated everything to the other women. One woman asked her to ask me if I was a girl (I was only slightly offended).
They posed for a picture, and Judy and I bought hot, flaky bread for the bus ride.
A large complex of madrasahs and mosques. Here are buried the bones of Muhammed's cousin, who came early to Samarkand to teach Islam. Legend says that he still is alive and living in the wells of the complex.
A worker's sustanance: tea, bread and hard candies.
At nearly every place we stopped, we had to pay a few hundred sum to take photos. This woman was the money collector at this complex and welcomed a portrait.
A narrow passage from the front to the back of the complex, with arched entrances to rooms for teaching, all brightly tiled and patterned.
A local woman poses for a portrait.
See the domes through the arch?
This hallway leads to the bones of Muhammed's cousin.
A tiled dome inside one of the rooms.
This is a mosque that was built by Temur's favorite wife. While he was away, she ordered it built for him as a surprise. The large stone on the platform held the copy of the Koran we viewed in Tashkent, the oldest one around.
This mosque has not been restored from damage by earthquakes. Inside the room with the dome, we could faintly see the original decorations from the 14th century. Unfortunately, the photos didn't come out so well.
It is supposed to be good for fertility to crawl underneath the Koran stand.
Just next to that mosque is a large city market (you can see the mosque in the background). This woman vends nougat candy.
Traditional beaver pelt hats.
Orange carrots for salads, yellow carrots for cooking.
This is Registan Square, meaning "the sandy place". These were once functioning madrasahs. Now it is the heart of Samarkand, and where young boys once studied the Koran, vendors line shelves with pottery, embroidery and plastic knick knacks. Even still, it is an impressive and beautiful place.
Nic at the entrance to one madrasah with rare green tiling.
Inside a restored room.
One of the vendor's shops. These embroidered tapestries are called suzanni, and are all over the country. They are incredibly beautiful and died with natural materials like pomegranates, leaves and walnut shells. This woman was working on one, while all around her hung some of the most beautiful suzanni I saw on the entire tour (and the most costly, but rightly so. They were fantastic).
From Samarkand we had one final bus ride back to Tashkent and to the airport. The great thing about coming in the Fall is the harvest. We stopped along the highway to Tashkent and could buy a kilo (2.2 pounds) of fresh, intense magenta pomegranates for about US $0.20.
