The center of the Silk Road — Timur's Registan, 2,700 years of history, and Uzbek plov
Samarkand is the most historically significant city on the ancient Silk Road — at the crossroads of routes between China, India, Persia, and the Mediterranean for over 2,700 years. Timur (Tamerlane) rebuilt it as his empire's showcase capital in the 14th century, and the Registan — three monumental madrasahs surrounding a central square, their facades covered in Timurid turquoise and gold tilework — is among the most visually overwhelming architectural ensembles in the world. Uzbek food (plov cooked in cottonseed oil with meat, yellow carrots, and cumin in a massive kazan; samsa pastries from…
Samarkand (Maracanda to the Greeks — Alexander the Great captured and destroyed it in 329 BCE) has been continuously inhabited for at least 2,750 years. It was a great city of the Islamic Golden Age under the Samanid and Karakhanid dynasties; Genghis Khan destroyed it in 1220 and massacred most of its population; Timur (Tamerlane) rebuilt it as the capital of his Timurid Empire from the 1370s onward, importing craftsmen, architects, and scholars from across his conquered territories to create the monuments that survive today. Russia annexed the region in 1868 and designated Tashkent rather th…