Gur-i-Amir: The final resting place of the legendary Amir Timur (otherwise known as Tamerlane, the founder of the Timirud Empire that is celebrated as a national hero in Uzbekistan) is fit for a king (or an Amir 🙂 ). The entrance is adorned with beautiful blue tilework with a patterned turquoise dome in the background. We didn’t think it could get more regal until we went inside and saw all of the gold (paint) on the ceiling. Cue the Black Keys. We walked around the back to get a better view of the dome and saw an unrestored part of the mausoleum – not as opulent but neat to see what it looked like before the restoration

Shah-i-Zinda: As we’ve mentioned, we love using maps.me to get around, especially given we’ve decided not to buy SIM cards in places (we have WiFi often enough). Sometimes maps.me takes you on a fun adventure and that was definitely the case as we made our way to Shah-i-Zinda. The app took us through a graveyard (most of the graves had renderings of the deceased on the tombstones which was interesting) to a side “entrance” of this spot – we got lucky the gate was open! Many renowned figures in history are supposedly buried at this gorgeous necropolis from Qusam ibn-Abbas (cousin of Mohammed) to the families of Amir Timur and Ulugbek. We spent at least an hour walking through the shrines, marveling at the amazing dark blue and turquoise tilework, and craning our heads up to see the painted domed ceilings

Gumbaz Synagogue: Both Bukhara and Samarkand have old Jewish quarters that came highly recommended by the Dutch-Ukrainian couple we made friends with in Khiva, so we decided to check the old synagogue out. We walked through a residential neighborhood where we happened upon a group of young kids. Many ‘hellos’ and waves filled the quiet streets as we made our way to the synagogue. It was very understated, but interesting to see amidst the sea of ancient mosques. Well worth the walk to get more insight into how Samarkand residents live. We also caught an interesting and awesome view of Shah-i-Zinda on our way back to the main sites 

Hazrati Hizr Mosque / Karimov Mausoleum: Ever since our time at the Karimov museum in Tashkent, we’ve been fascinated with Uzbeks’ perception of the late dictator, Islam Karimov. The language barrier and reluctance to talk about politics (Uzbekistan still has an authoritarian government) made it difficult to broach the subject with locals, but we had heard that people regularly paid respects to Karimov at his final resting place. The mausoleum was less ornate than we expected with cheaper wood railings than we had seen at the other historic sites (we quietly wondered what Karimov would think of this given the amount of money he had poured into restoring many of Uzbekistan’s ancient sites). The mausoleum was pretty empty with just one other Uzbek family. No visible worship or positive feelings towards Karimov, despite what we heard we would see

Bibikhanum Mausoleum: One of the “must sees” in Samarkand is the Bibikhanum Mosque, which we read was once the largest mosque in the Islamic world. After a long day exploring Samarkand, we arrived at what we thought was the Bibikhanum Mosque. It was much smaller and more understated than we expected, but the 15th century was a long time ago we told ourselves. Though small, it was ornate and peaceful with only a few other people praying inside. A nice, but quick visit to the “legendary” Bibikhanum Mosque. Only the next day did we realize that we’d made a gaffe and gone into the mausoleum and not the mosque, which was in fact legendary 🙂

Bibikhanum Mosque: Easily one of our favorite sites in Samarkand (and potentially Uzbekistan), the Bibikhanum Mosque is, simply stated, epic. We came here right as the sun was going down which turned out to be the perfect time – very few tourists and remarkable lighting. We laughed about our mistake on the previous day given the epic proportions of the actual mosque, which no doubt had been the largest in the world at some point. The patterns were some of the most interesting we saw throughout Uzbekistan – a mix of mosaic tiles, painted ceilings, turquoise domes, and intricately carved doors. We had a hard time leaving

Registan: Samarkand’s most famous site is the Registan – the heart of the Timirud empire (as Jessie proudly learned in Intro to Islamic Civ in 2015). Framed by three breathtaking madrasas, it’s easy to imagine the Registan as ancient gathering place. We walked by the Registan a few times while exploring the other sites of Samarkand and finally entered the complex right before sunset to get a glimpse of it during day and night. We really enjoyed walking through the madrasas, each of which had an interesting history and different look (our favorite was Sher-Dor with two tigers framing the portal). The museums here were better than others we had found in Uzbekistan – we learned about the history of each madrasa and the restoration of the Registan. As we were about to leave, an older man approached us and asked if we were interested in climbing one of the minarets for a small fee (an ‘off the books’ side racket, we suspected). We happily obliged! It was a tough journey up a crumbling set of stairs (our quads were insanely sore the next day), but we were rewarded with a gorgeous view of the Registan all lit up and a colorful sunset

Afrasiyab: Slightly outside of the city center, the Afrasiyab is the archaeological ruins of Samarkand – a city that is older than Rome. We spent a few hours walking around the museum and exploring the old archeological site. We were surprised by how empty it was compared to the other sites in Samarkand given its history. We really enjoyed walking around and finding ancient pieces of pottery on the grounds of the city. One of the coolest parts of the museum was the remarkably well-preserved frescoes of the old palace. These frescoes depict dignitaries from different ancient empires coming to visit the Amir – we found the history fascinating