How do I get to Samarkand?

The fastest way is the Afrosiyob high-speed train from Tashkent (about 2 hours). Samarkand also has an international airport.

Crossroads of Cultures

Samarkand

Overview

For more than two and a half millennia Samarkand has stood at the crossroads of civilisations. Conquered by Alexander, rebuilt by Timur, it remains one of the most spectacular cities on earth — a place where turquoise domes and soaring portals still take the breath away.

Why Visit

Registan Square — arguably the most magnificent public square in the Islamic world
The royal tombs of Gur-e-Amir and the dazzling Shah-i-Zinda necropolis
A high-speed train makes it an easy two hours from Tashkent

Travel Tips

— Visit Registan at both day and night — the evening illumination is unmissable
— Spring (Apr–May) and autumn (Sep–Oct) offer the most pleasant weather
— Allow at least two full days to do the city justice

Sights in Samarkand

Architectural ensemble · 1417–1660

Registan Square

Three tiled madrasahs facing one another across an open square: the Registan is the set piece of Timurid and post-Timurid Samarkand, built over 240 years and still the city’s civic heart.

Mausoleum · 1403–1404, later additions under Ulugbek

Gur-e-Amir Mausoleum

The tomb of Amir Timur and his descendants: a fluted turquoise dome over a gilded burial chamber, and the model for the great Mughal tombs of India.

Architectural ensemble · 11th–19th centuries (mostly 1330s–1440s)

Shah-i-Zinda Necropolis

A narrow lane of some twenty mausoleums climbing the slope of Afrasiab, faced in the finest glazed tilework of the Timurid age and gathered around the shrine of Qusam ibn Abbas.

Mosque · 1399–1404

Bibi-Khanym Mosque

Timur’s congregational mosque, built with the spoils of his Indian campaign and meant to be the largest in the Islamic world. Ruined by earthquakes, it is still overwhelming in scale.

Bazaar · Market on this site for centuries; current halls 20th century

Siab Bazaar

Samarkand’s main farmers’ market, right beside Bibi-Khanym: stacks of round Samarkand bread, dried fruit and nuts, halva, spices and the season’s melons.

Museum · c. 1424–1429

Ulugbek Observatory

The remains of the great observatory where Timur’s grandson Ulugbek catalogued over a thousand stars: a giant meridian arc cut into the rock of Kohak hill, with a small museum beside it.

Museum · Settlement 7th c. BC – 1220; museum opened 1970

Afrasiab Museum and Ancient Settlement

The grassy plateau north of the old town is ancient Samarkand itself, abandoned after the Mongols. Its museum holds the 7th-century Sogdian Ambassadors’ Painting, one of the great survivals of the Silk Road.

Mausoleum · Present building c. 1900; shrine much older

Mausoleum of Saint Daniel (Khoja Doniyor)

A long, five-domed mausoleum above the Siab stream, revered as the resting place of the Prophet Daniel and visited by Muslims, Christians and Jews alike.

Craft workshop · Workshop founded in the 1990s; craft from the 8th century

Konigil Paper Mill (Meros)

In a village on the edge of Samarkand, water-driven wooden hammers still pound mulberry bark into pulp for Samarkand paper, a craft revived after more than a century of silence.

Architectural ensemble · Shrine since the 9th century; complex 1998, rebuilt and reopened 2026

Imam al-Bukhari Memorial Complex

The burial place of Imam al-Bukhari, compiler of the most authoritative collection of hadith, about 25 km north of Samarkand. Rebuilt on a vast scale and reopened in March 2026.

Mosque · Present building 1854, portal and minaret c. 1900; site of an 8th-century mosque by tradition

Hazrat Khizr Mosque

A small, finely painted mosque on the hill above Siab Bazaar, said to stand on the site of one of Samarkand’s first mosques, with one of the best views over the old city.

Mausoleum · c. 1380

Rukhabad Mausoleum

A plain, brick-domed tomb between the Registan and Gur-e-Amir, built under Timur for the Sufi sheikh Burhaneddin Sagarji: the most austere of Samarkand’s mausoleums, and one of its oldest Timurid buildings.

Mausoleum · Grave 944; modern mausoleum and memorial complex, renewed 2025–26

Mausoleum of Imam al-Maturidi

The grave of Abu Mansur al-Maturidi, the 10th-century Samarkand theologian whose school of Sunni creed is followed across Central Asia, Turkey and South Asia. A key stop on any ziyarat.

Park · Opened 2022

Eternal City (Silk Road Samarkand)

A recreated old town inside the Silk Road Samarkand tourist complex, with lanes of craft workshops, restaurants and evening shows: modern, staged and lively, especially after dark.

Palace · 1380–c. 1404

Ak-Saray Palace, Shakhrisabz

The shattered gateway of Timur’s summer palace in his home town, Shakhrisabz: two tiled pylons, still nearly 40 metres high, that hint at what may have been the grandest building of his empire.

Architectural ensemble · 1374–1438

Dorut-Tilovat and Kok-Gumbaz Mosque, Shakhrisabz

A Timurid ensemble in Shakhrisabz around the blue-domed Kok-Gumbaz Friday mosque, built by Ulugbek in 1435, and the tomb of the sheikh who guided Timur’s father.

Architectural ensemble · 1376–c. 1404

Dorus-Saodat and the Crypt of Timur, Shakhrisabz

The dynastic burial ground Timur built in his home town: the tall, cone-roofed tomb of his son Jahangir, and an underground crypt with the empty stone sarcophagus Timur prepared for himself.