"Architectural Pearl of Central Asia " a Samarkand Travel Page by josephescu

Lying in the river valley of the Zerafshan and flanked by the Pamir-Altai mountains, this fabled oasis at the fringes of the Kyzyl Kum desert has never lacked breathless admirers.

The city proper claims equity with Roma and Babylon for archaeologists date urban settlement at least to the 6th century B.C. Until the 16th century, Samarkand was always the first city of Transoxiana in terms of population, commerce and culture, for fertile earth rewards the farmer and trade routes west to Persia, east to China and South to India met here to met a major silk Road crossroads and emporium.

Among conquerors to cast their shadows were Macedonian Alexander the Great, the Mongol Genghis Khan and, above all, Tamerlane, whose capital of fluted domes and sky-blue mosaic excites the traveller even today.

Genghis Khan’s fame made be wider, but Tamerlane’s legacy shines brighter, for he took a Samarkand of sun-dried brick and left it the architectural pearl of Central Asia.