Day 34, 03 July 2012 Samarkand

Samarkand has always been cited as Uzbekistan’s most glorious city.

The city is most noted for its central position on the Silk Road between China and the West, and for being an Islamic centre for scholarly study since the 14th century.

One can imagine the height of Samarkand during her glorious days back during the reign of Timur The Great till his grandson Ulugbek (1370 till 1449) as one of the most beautiful ancient city of the world. As patron of the arts, during the next 35 years Timur built Samarkand and populated it with artisans and craftsmen from all of the places he had conquered.

Our first visit in the morning was to the Gur-e- Amir Mausoleum where Timur, two sons and two grandsons, including Ulugbek, lie beneath the surprisingly modest mausoleum.

This stone slab once belonged to Timur The Great. Probably Timur himself was lying the same way as Steve does

In the winter of 1405, Timur died unexpectedly of pneumonia in today modern world Kazakhstan, in the course of planning an attack against the Chinese Ming dynasty.

 Timur The Great

Before we went into the Bibi- Khanym, we stopped by the frenetic, colourful main market Siob Bazaar. A great place for photographers.

Bibi-Khanym Mosque (Persian: مسجد بی بی خانم‎; Uzbek: Bibi-Xonum machiti) is a famous historical mosque whose name comes from the wife of 14th-century ruler, Timur.

Legend says that Bibi- Khanym, Timur’s Chinese wife, ordered the mosque built as a surprise while he was away. The architect fell madly in love with her and refused to finish the job unless he could give her a kiss. The kiss left a mark and Timur, on seeing it, executed the architect and decreed that women should thereafter wear veils so as not to tempt other men.

Before Bibi- Khanym allows the architect to smooch her, she painted 10eggs with different designs and presented to the architect by saying “All designs on the eggs are different but the inside are the same. Why do you choose to fall for me?”

The architect came back later with 10jars and filled them with drinking water except one with white wine. He placed the eggs into the jar and says “My Queen, these 10jars looked the same with the same egg but only the one jar with wine can satisfy me”

Next, we went to The Registan where the three grand edifices here are among the world’s oldest preserved medressas, anything older having been destroyed by Genghis Khan.

Above pictures taken from top of 15th century minaret

The three medressas are Ulugbek Medressa, Sher Dor Medressa and Tilla- kari Medressa.

 The Ulugbek Medressa

Sher Dor (Lion) Medressa, decorated with roaring felines representing Timur's power and strength

 The Saw brother's 

 Samarkand friendly citizen

Overlooking the street from our dinner restaurant

Day 33, 02 July 2012 Tashkent to Samarkand

Today total distance traveled 320km


We bid farewell to our caring host from our B&B and heads SW’ly direction into Samarkand.

Young and modern Uzbek lady

The rare White Stork nest on top of cable pole

The drive to Samarkand was a pleasant one except the difficulty of getting diesel along the way. It was not until after lunch we came by the first gas station in 200km to have diesel.

 This is something you don't see in our Petronas station

2m wide pit in between your car and the pump!

We met Compass Expedition motorcycling group on the highway and later found out that they were heading to the same hotel as us in Samarkand.

To read more: www.compassexpeditions.com

Dinner was simple in a local restaurant serving pork and alcohol, it was definitely an eye opener for us to be in a restaurant serving Halal and non- Halal at the same time.

 Pork dishes?