"Samarqand: Sher Dor. . the Lion and the Gazelle" Top 5 Page for this destination Uzbekistan Things to Do Tip by kokoryko

And now, look at Samarkand!
Is she not queen of the world?
Proud above all the cities,
Holding their fates in her hands?

E.A. Poe (sorry, Edgar, I translated back from French, not sure these were the words you used!)

One of the most famous buildings in Islamic world; this madrassa, a typical Timuride-Persian building, build in 1636, with a high pishtak, a wide iwan , the two minarets on the sides; the gadroon ornate cupolas, seem to be the Timuride- distinctive element in this madrassa. Madrassas were schools (Taliban schools, yes!) really integrated in the city life. The students (Taliban) studied and lived there, but were free to go around in the city and it is easy to imagine that the city was very lively around the madrassas; some madrassas were run by very important scholars and the studies program was different from one madrassa to the other, but the subject was always religion, theology; science, poetry, and other matters were studied elsewhere.
The whole madrassa is covered by ceramics and majolicas, with mainly geometrical and flower motives, and of course, there are the famous lions.
Main picture: The famous lion (or are these tigers? the beautiful ceramics show clearly a mane on this animal. Sher Dor, chir dor, means something like: wearing lions. . . so. . !); what, who, does it represent? And the sun above? Legends say that the architect has been sentenced to death because of heresy. Yes, some may see a Zoroastrian symbol with the sun watching and preventing the powerful (the lion) trying to destroy the beauty and the arts (the gazelle).