When in Samarkand you must visit the Guri Amir Mausoleum where the great conqueror Timur (better known as Tamerlane), who didn’t lost no battle and created a vast empire stretching from Turkey to India, was buried.

In 1403 Timur began to build a mausoleum for his beloved grandson Muhammad Sultan whom he wanted to make his heir and always took with him in all his military campaigns. And during one of the campaigns Muhammad Sultan died and Timur wanted to bury him in a mausoleum called «Guri Amir», which is Persian for «Tomb of the King».

Later, Timur was also buried in the Guri Amir Mausoleum. His tomb of black nephritis is in the center of the mausoleum. At the foot of the Timur's tomb there was buried his grandson Ulugh Beg, a great scholar of his time, and Timur himself wanted to be buried at the foot of his spiritual teacher Sayyid Baraka. The tombs of the sons of Timur, as well as his grandson Muhammad Sultan, are on the sides of his tomb. You can see only the gravestones, while the graves themselves are in the basement and not everyone can see them.

Amir Timur began to build the Bibi-Khanym Mosque after the triumphant Indian campaign in 1399. The main mosque of Samarkand had to be the biggest and most splendid building of that time, worthy to represent the greatness of his empire.

The Bibi-Khanym Mosque was called in honor of the elder wife of Timur, SarayMulkHanym. As is known, Timur could supervise only the beginning of the construction of the Bibi-Khanym Mosque in 1399. Then he went on the campaign against Turkey for several years and returned only in 1404.

By the time that Timur came back the Bibi-Khanym Mosque was mostly finished. It was and is the largest mosque in Central Asia and one of the largest in the world. Its court for Friday namaz could accommodate over 10 000 people, but Timur disliked many of the architectural solutions of the Bibi-Khanym Mosque. He executed the noblemen who supervised the construction and ordered to redesign the entrance portal.

The size of the court of the Bibi-Khanym Mosque is 100 х 140 meters. Galleries were built on each side of the court. Four massive minarets were decorated by impressive domes. The diameter of the central dome over the mosque is 40 meters. In the middle of the mosque court there is a special stone stand where the open Quran of giant size could be placed.

It is the famous Samarkand Kufic Quran. It is the oldest hand-written Quran, which survived until our days and is supposedly stained by the blood of the pious caliph Uthman. Since that time it was also known as the Uthman Quran. After careful scientific studies it was determined that the Uthman Quran dated back to 7-8 centuries and in Uzbekistan it was brought only in 15th century in the reign of Timur's grandson Ulugh Beg. Now the Uthman Quran is kept at the Tashkent mosque Tillya-Sheikh.