Registan Square

The name of the square translates as "sandy place": the trading streets of old Samarkand converged here, the ruler's decrees were proclaimed here and the army was mustered here. The ensemble took shape over more than two centuries. The first to be built, in 1417-1420 under Ulugh Beg, was the madrasah on the western side. Two hundred years later the ruler of Samarkand, Yalangtush Bahadur, put up the Sher-Dor opposite it (1619-1636), taking down Ulugh Beg's dilapidated khanaka, and then closed the northern side of the square with the Tilya-Kori madrasah (1646-1660), raised on the site of an old caravanserai. The name of the last means "covered with gold": the mosque inside is painted all over in gold, while the dome above it was only completed in the 20th century. The portal of the Sher-Dor stands out for its mosaic, in which beasts with lions' manes pursue does and above them rises a sun with a human face: images of living creatures are rare on a Muslim building. In the 20th century the square was cleared of later structures and the cultural layer, which over the centuries had risen above the thresholds of the madrasahs, was cut away, so that the buildings again stand on their own bases. Since 2001 the Registan has been part of the World Heritage site "Samarkand - Crossroads of Cultures".

On the map