Registan Square

Registan Square, Samarkand

The Sher-Dor Madrasah has tigers on its portal arch. This is unusual for an Islamic building: traditional Islamic iconography avoids human and animal representations, and the 1636 building’s architect included them anyway – tigers pursuing deer, with a sun-face rising behind each tiger. The name means “bearing lions” in Persian. The reason for this departure from convention is not fully documented, but the tigers are there, in full-colour tile work, looking out over the central square of Samarkand. Looking at Sher-Dor’s portal and then back at the Ulughbek Madrasah directly opposite (built in 1420, geometrically austere), you can see how precisely the later building was designed as a formal mirror of the earlier one, and how the tiger tiles function as the thing that announces this is not a copy.

The Registan is a three-sided square formed by a madrasah on each flank: Ulughbek Madrasah (1420), Sher-Dor Madrasah (1636), and Tilya-Kori Madrasah (1660). Together they form the most consistently photographed ensemble of Islamic architecture in Central Asia. They are also well-maintained and open to visitors. Entry costs around USD 4 for foreigners, covering all three buildings.

The Buildings

Ulughbek Madrasah was built by the astronomer-ruler Ulughbek as a theological college; its portal arch is 18 metres wide and covered in geometric tile mosaic. Ulughbek was murdered by his own son in 1449, three years after his great observatory (a few kilometres away) was completed. The observatory allowed him to measure the length of the sidereal year to within one minute of modern calculations – in 1420, using naked-eye instruments. The madrasah’s original carved wooden door is in the State Museum of History in Tashkent; what you see is a reproduction.

Tilya-Kori Madrasah in the centre has a mosque with a gilded ceiling: gold-painted plasterwork covering the entire dome interior in a pattern of arabesques and calligraphy. The effect in person – standing inside with that ceiling overhead – is overwhelming in a way that photographs do not capture. This room is the reason to enter.

The former student cells in all three buildings now house artisan workshops and shops, which means the buildings are active spaces rather than preserved shells. You can walk through courtyards, watch craftspeople at work, and examine their products. The buildings breathe.

The Square at Night

A sound and light show runs at 9pm in summer, projecting images onto the facades. It costs around USD 2 to 3 and runs 40 minutes. Opinion divides on whether it adds or detracts. Arriving at 8pm before the show, when the low late light catches the tile work without any audio accompaniment, is the better experience.

Gur-e-Amir

The mausoleum of Timur (Tamerlane), 15 minutes’ walk south of the Registan, has a ribbed turquoise dome on a cylindrical drum and carved jade cenotaphs inside. Entry costs around USD 3. In 1941 Soviet archaeologists opened Timur’s tomb and found his skeleton, confirming historical accounts of his lameness caused by a wound sustained in a 1362 battle. Stalin had the remains reinterred with full Islamic honours shortly after.

Getting to Samarkand

The Afrosiyob high-speed train from Tashkent reaches Samarkand in 2 hours 10 minutes. Fares are USD 10 to 20 in economy. The train station is 3 kilometres from the Registan. April, May, September, and October are the best months; summer temperatures regularly exceed 40 degrees and the tile work looks better in low-angle light than in noon glare.