About The Best Places to Visit in Samarkand

                                                                         “Everything I have heard about the beauty of Samarkand is true –                                                                                    except that it is even more beautiful than I could have imagined.”                                                                                                                                               Alexander the Great, 329 BC

Among the cities of the world, one of the most ancient is Samarkand, which is more than 2750 years old. There are many legends surrounding its history. Its praises have been sung by the writers and poets of old. It has been the home of great scholars and architects, whose works still stand in all their glory to delight and amaze us. Like other great centers of the ancient world, such as Babylon, Thebes and Rome, Samarkand has a rich and turbulent past. In the 4th century BC it was conquered by Alexander the Great and his Greek troops. At the beginning of the 13th century the city experienced the invasion of the barbaric hordes of Genghis Khan whose savage hordes annihilated its population, pillaged its treasure and reduced the city to the heap of ruins. It looked as though the city was about to enter a long period of decline, but by the latter or the 13th century it had recovered to such an extent, that the Venetian explorer Marco Polo described it as “a very large and impressive city”. In the late 14th century the Central Asian conqueror Timur (Tamerlan) designed to make Samarkand the capital of his great empire adorned with buildings of unsurpassed splendor, elegance and luxury. Skillful architects and masons, artists and artisans were brought here from the conquered lands and the construction was launched on a scale that had never been known before. It was then that the most famous buildings of the city were erected. Very considerable construction work was also carried on under Ulugbek, Timur’s grandson, who was both an eminent ruler and scholar, the author of astronomic tables known throughout the world. Under Ulugbek more magnificent buildings were erected. There are a lot of historical monuments in Samarkand, well known all over the world: the Shah-i-Zinda Ensemble, Gur-Emir Mausoleum, the Registan Square, Bibi Khanym Mosque, the Ulug Bek Observatory. A lot of tourists from different countries visit Samarkand and its famous monuments, which are dazzled. Samarkand , the fabled city on the Silk Road, the capital of the conquerors and the Romantic poets to the monastery, still shines as the brightest star among the historical and the cultural centers of the modern world. Today Samarkand is a place where is carefully preserved the unique spirit of antiquity. A special combination of its rich monumental and amazing diversity of its cultural traditions make an impression on visitors.