May 18 Mosques, medressas and mausoleums

.... and you could order porridge as well as eggs

Dilshoda hotel, our hotel in Samarkand, was a mere 100m or so from the mausoleum of Amir Timur - one of the places on my must-see list. It was comfortable except for the pillows which were like rocks but that was compensated for by banquet breakfasts eaten from a delightful reclining couch affair.  We arrived too late for breakfast but were treated to tea and sugared almonds and then we wandered the 100m to Amit Timor’s mausoleum almost next door. 

Amit Timor’s mausoleum

Breathtaking! Alabaster, marble, onyx, gold and ceramic tiles by the megaton. Timur also known as Tamerlane, brought me to Samarkand. That’s perhaps an exaggeration, but his conquests in and domination of Central Asia and beyond to India, Turkey and Africa intrigued me. He was a tyrant, a despot after the style of the day, cutting a swathe across the continent, sacking and razing cities and countries and amassing treasures as he went. He brought it all back to Samarkand.  He rivalled Genghis Khan in terms of his conquests and power. The dynasty he founded introduced some clever people including grandson Ulugh Beg, an astronomer and scholar, who established many wonderful things such as the mighty medressa of learning in Samarkand and an observatory which I so wanted to see but which sadly has been destroyed. Its remains part of the massive excavations in the old Samarkand - Afrosiab, where we went next day.

The vast territory that Timor conquered. 

Inside the mausoleum the detail, colour, design and gold was jaw-dropping! All the walls, domes and ceiling were densely decorated. In the centre of the mausoleum is the tomb of Amir Timur and that is flanked by his teacher and the men from his family (the women are buried elsewhere!). Some of the entrances to the structures in the grounds of the mausoleum were very low. This facilitates respect - people have to bow to enter. And there’s an elaborate arrangement of locks to signify to any visitor who is home - for instance if women are on their own.

We were there!

After the opulence of Timur's maussoleum, we wandered the grounds visiting the place where the women of the family were entombed and then watched a small group harvesting white mulberries, Mulberry trees are everywhere in Uzbekistan. White mulberries were ready for picking when we were there and the black ones come later. They harvest by spreading a large cloth on the ground and then hit the tree. Incidentally the Uzbeks first made paper from the mulberry tree.

It was a morning of opulence but then we headed for the complex of madrasah at Registan Square. The dynasty Timur founded introduced some brilliant people including grandson Ulugh Beg, an astronomer and scholar, who established many wonderful things such as the mighty madrasah of learning in Samarkand, which housed 54 study cells each of which housed 4, and an observatory which I very  much wanted to see but which sadly has been destroyed. Its remains part of the massive excavations in the old Samarkand - Afrosiab, where we went next day. The structures in Registan Square were most impressive but others are still in the process of being rebuilt after earthquakes in the late 1800s seriously damaged many of the large structures. Add to that the Soviet era and a time of rationalisation. Many have been restored, but slowly. One that I found quite impressive and which I felt gave some inkling of the history and the passage of time was the mosque that Timur had built for his favourite wife.

Registan Square. The madrasah on the left was built by Ulugh Beg

Inside Ulugh Beg's madrasah were many artisans shops - this is carpet weaving

Words are totally inadequate to describe the beauitful tile work.

A crumbled part of a minaret of the mosque Timur built for his favourite wife

That evening after a very full day, we went in search of food and found a marvellous place that served horse meat. I think this may have been cured with herbs and was served as an entree. It is a national dish in Uzbekistan and is absoultely delicious. We ordered it 3 times while we were in Samarkand! We are eating extrremely well as we travel.

Delicious spiced horsemeat 'salami'