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Photo: Jamshid Avazovich Djurakulov, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
This ornately tiled mausoleum with mosque and medressa was erected from 15th to 17th century. This would be a major attraction elsewhere but is overshadowed by the Registan and other central sights, and few tourists come this far out.
The Khoja Ahrar Complex is an Islamic religious complex located in the Ulugbek district in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It is made up of a mosque, madrasa and the tomb of Khwaja Ahrar, a 15th-century Muslim statesman. The present-day complex dates back to the 17th century and was built during the rule of the Astrakhan Khanate.
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An old but still active large mosque built in the 17th century. The exterior decoration is minimalistic, as the colorful tiles have been lost. It was built with funds from Nadir Divanbegi, a high-ranking official in Bukhara. The name of the mosque is translated as a "place for namaz (praying)".
A large Chinese-style square, named after Confucius, with characteristic gazebos, an entrance arch in the appropriate style, and Chinese and East Asian elements.
The city's only Catholic Church. It was built in 1916 in the neo-Gothic style by Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war brought here by the Russian Empire during World War I. Most of the priests in this church are Polish. In Samarkand, Catholics include local Poles, local Ukrainians with roots in Western Ukraine, and expats from Catholic countries. The church is part of the Apostolic Administration of Uzbekistan, which is subordinate to the Vatican. Services are held in Russian and English.
It is one of the city's three active Orthodox churches, and the largest one (there are others which are inactive), subordinate to the Samarkand Deanery of the Tashkent and Uzbekistan Diocese (Central Asian Metropolitan District) of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Named after Metropolitan Alexei of Moscow, who lived in the 14th century, the church was built in 1912 in the Russian Revival architecture style, originally for a military garrison. Orthodoxy is the main Christian denomination in Samarkand. Most of the local Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Georgians, some of the local Koreans, and other small ethnic groups (for example, Greeks, Latvians, and Moldovans) that arrived during the Imperial and Soviet periods are Orthodox.
The place's only Armenian Church, built in 1903 by local Armenian residents with the permission of the Russian Imperial authorities. Samarkand is home to the second-largest Armenian diaspora in Uzbekistan, after Tashkent. Armenians have been living in Central Asia since the late 14th century, and their population increased during the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the USSR, most of the local Armenians remained in independent Uzbekistan and obtained local citizenship, while a small number of them moved to Armenia, Russia, Europe, and the United States. Local Armenians belong to the category of so-called Eastern Armenians. In Samarkand, they have shashlik (barbecue) bars where you can try pork shashlik, as well as local homemade wine and cognac.
Samarkand's largest active Shia mosque. Shia religious ceremonies, including Ashura, are regularly held here. Next to the mosque is an inactive madrasa of the same name, turned into a landmark, where souvenirs are sold, people gather for socializing, a center for learning Persian, and a friendship society between Uzbekistan and Iran.