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Photo: Registan_-_Gusjer.jpg: Gustavo Jeronimo from Aranjuez, Spain derivative work: MrPanyGoff, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
This magnificent square is the defining image, not only of Samarkand but of the whole Silk Road. It became the city's main square from the 15th century, Timurid times, after Afrosiab was abandoned. It's lined by three madrasahs, all with grand portals and richly adorned. Ulugbek on the west side is the oldest madrasah, from 1417; its upper floor has been lost. Shirdor facing it on the east side was built from 1619; "Shir" means tiger, from the motif on its portal. Tilya-Kori on the north side was built from 1646 and was also the grand mosque; the name means "gilded". Each madrasah is set around a courtyard, with student lodgings and classrooms.
Registan, officially the Registan Square is a historic public square in the city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It served as the heart of the Timurid Empire and later as the city's commercial, educational, and ceremonial center. The square is famed for its ensemble of three madrasas : the Ulugh Beg Madrasa of the Timurid period, the Sherdar Madrasa and the Tilakari Madrasa, built later under the Janid dynasty—which together represent some of the finest achievements of Islamic architecture in Central Asia. Renowned for its soaring iwans, turquoise domes, intricate mosaic tilework, and geometric ornamentation, Registan is considered one of the greatest examples of Timurid and Persian-influenced architecture..
© OpenStreetMap contributors
A large green park with a minimum of amenities and benches, not far from the Gur-e Emir Mausoleum. You will definitely pass through this park if you continue walking towards Registan Square. The park has many coniferous and chestnut trees. There is a spring and a monument to the two Tiger Guards of Samarkand.
Named after the principal wife of Timur, this was erected after his capture of Delhi in 1399. But design was muddled and construction rushed, so for the next 150 years it had to be patched and mended as bits fell off, until it was given up as a lost cause. It actually stood for another 200 years before collapsing in 1897. It was rebuilt from 1974.
If for personal experience you want to see a performance in the Uzbek language, then in the center of Samarkand on the Theater Square, not far from the Ruhabad Mausoleum there is the main theater of Samarkand. The theater building was built in Soviet times, and somewhat resembles the building of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, but only without sculptures on the roof of the portal. In addition to performances in Uzbek, there are also performances in Russian and Tajik.
Burial place of the Sufi teacher Burkhan ad-Din Sagardji, who died in the 1380s. It became engulfed by later buildings around Gur-e-Emir, which were cleared away in 1996 so the mausoleum complex was rediscovered and rebuilt.
Amir Temur Mausoleum
The warlord Timur or Tamerlane (c 1320-1405) preferred to campaign in spring / summer and lay up during the cruel steppes winter. On his last sortie, already in his eighties, in a hurry to attack Ming China, he sickened and died at Farab (nowadays Otrar), to no great sorrow by the Chinese ambassadors he'd imprisoned. It was impossible to transport him through the snow to the tomb he'd prepared at Shahrisabz, so he was laid here, in the tomb intended for his grandson who'd died of battle wounds in Turkey in 1403. Both bodies were reburied in 1409, as it became the Timurid dynastic crypt. The mausoleum is richly tiled and decorated: the piece of jade over Timur's headstone, the largest in the world, is a poke in the eye of the Emperor of China, since it was purloined from his palace.
Al Matrudi (853-944 AD) was a theologian whose teachings underlie one of the major strands of Sunni Islam. His original mausoleum was destroyed in 1940 and this is a retro creation of 2000.