Registan Square, Samarkand: One of the Few Places That Actually Exceeds Its Reputation

There are places described so often that you arrive expecting disappointment. The Registan is not one of them. Three madrasahs arranged around a square courtyard, covered in blue, turquoise, and gold geometric tilework at a scale that makes the concept of Islamic architecture concrete and undeniable. This was the public square of Timur’s Samarkand in the 15th century – the place where announcements were made, executions carried out, and foreign ambassadors received to demonstrate the empire’s wealth. It competes with anything the Ottomans or Safavids ever built, and most people have never seen it.

Samarkand was on the Silk Road for over a millennium, receiving merchants, diplomats, and scholars from China, India, Persia, and Europe. The city reached its peak under Timur (Tamerlane) in the late 14th and early 15th centuries; after his death the dynasty produced Ulugbek, a ruler who was also a serious mathematician and astronomer who built one of the most advanced observatories in the medieval world about three kilometres from the Registan.

The Three Madrasahs

Ulugbek Madrasah (built 1417 to 1420) is the oldest. Ulugbek himself, who had studied there as a student, later had it built as a centre of learning. The portal tilework is 600 years old. The courtyard cells where students lived and studied are accessible.

Sher Dor Madrasah (1636), facing directly across the square, contains two mosaics on its portal with tigers chasing deer and, above each tiger, what appears to be a human face within a sun. This was a significant violation of Islamic artistic convention against depicting living beings, and it was a deliberate political statement by the Shaybanid rulers who built it – an assertion of local authority over religious orthodoxy.

Tilla-Kari Madrasah (1660), along the north side, has an interior prayer hall with walls covered in gilded painting in an opulent style that was intended to serve as Samarkand’s main mosque after the original Great Mosque was lost.

Entry to the complex is around 100,000 UZS (approximately $8). The interiors of the madrasahs are largely converted to craft shops selling silk, ceramics, and miniature paintings. This is mildly unfortunate but does not affect the external facades or the experience of the square itself.

Gur Emir Mausoleum

About 800 metres from the Registan, this is the tomb of Timur himself. The dome at 34 metres is fluted and covered in turquoise and blue tilework; it has been widely influential in Islamic mausoleum architecture across Central Asia and into South Asia. The Taj Mahal’s dome draws on the same tradition. Inside, Timur’s tomb is marked by a dark green jade cenotaph. When Soviet archaeologists opened the actual crypt below in 1941, they reportedly found the inscription “Whoever disturbs my tomb will unleash an invader more terrible than I.” Hitler’s invasion of the USSR began two days later. Whether this is causation or coincidence, it is a better story than most.

Plov and Getting There

Uzbek plov (pilaf) is the national dish: rice cooked in lamb fat with carrots, onion, and meat in a large kazan. Samarkand’s version uses a different proportion than Tashkent’s and is considered by many Uzbeks to be the better of the two. The Samarkand Plov Center on Universitetskaya Street does a solid tourist-facing version; the morning market, eaten standing up, is better.

High-speed rail from Tashkent to Samarkand takes about 2 hours and costs roughly $15 for a standard ticket. The station is 5 kilometres from the Registan; a taxi costs 15,000 to 20,000 UZS.