Uh-mazing Uzbekistan!! (Part 4): Samarkand Beyond the Center!

- December 27, 2025, Saturday.

- Samarkand is one of the cities that people often like because the major historical spots are within walking distance to each other. But beyond the city center, there are also many obscure yet significant places that are worth a visit.

- The Ulugh Beg Observatory, north of the city center, was a masterpiece of science in the 1400s. Ulugh Beg himself, a sultan and grandson of Timur, was a celebrated astronomer who contributed much to the world's understanding of the alignment of stars and other heavenly bodies. The giant observatory, however, was destroyed by religious fanatics after Ulugh Beg's death. Today, a small portion of the observatory, reconstructed in recent times, as well as a small museum stand in the site of the observatory.

A peek of the observatory. This was a giant device that helped calculate the position of stars.

The giant device in the previous photo can be seen inside this door.

Museum.

Other devices used by Ulugh Beg.

Another view of the observatory.

With me!

Ulugh Beg.

- My family walked all the way to the Khoja Daniyor Mausoleum. It was a slightly longer walk than I had expected, and there were some ups and downs on the way to the mausoleum because it was at the side of a hill. The tomb was only built in the 1400s, but the person inside the mausoleum is said to be the Prophet Daniel (yes, the same Daniel in the Bible, Qur'an, and Torah.) It is said that Timur went to Asia Minor, present-day Turkey, and retrieved the relics of Daniel and buried the relics in Samarkand.

Siyob River. The mausoleum is somewhere to the left.

You'll see this Samarqand sign. Go down to reach the park beside the river. The mausoleum is somewhere there.

Khoja Daniyor Mausoleum.

Inside the mausoleum. This is actually the only thing to see.

This pistachio tree is 600 years old!

- Outside the major sites in Samarkand, another place I was intrigued by was the Afrasiyab archaeological site, located behind the Afrasiyab Museum. It was an ancient city, and the major archaeological site is accessible to museum visitors. The museum itself was interesting, however the archaeological site didn't have much to see. Probably more labels or maybe a site map would help. The area was quite big also, and we were quite lost as to what to see in particular. (We were expecting something as detailed as Pompeii, with arrows or labels to inform us of the city's layout, or what buildings stood there, etc.)

Afrasiyab Museum.

Gallery with Sogdian murals from an ancient private house, now in the museum.

Part of the murals showed Tang Dynasty Empress Dowager Wu Zetian, with musicians.  

Museum gallery.

Zoroastrian fireplace.

Sogdian fabrics.

Archaeological site. This was the citadel.

- To the other side of Samarkand, in the south, lies a mausoleum that han'st been restored as nicely as the other grander mausoleums in the city. The Ishratxona Mausoleum, or more formally, the Mausoleum of Sultan Hovand Beka (Hovand Sultanbegim), was built in the 1400s by Habiba Sultan for her daugher, Hovand Beka, who died young. Apart from its historical significance, the mausoleum gives visitors an idea of how most of the ancient buildings were found by archaeologists before there were restored and retiled.     

Mausoleum of Sultan Hovand Beka.

Another angle.

Entry to the building wasn't allowed, and I would assume, wasn't safe too. 

- The rest of the day was dedicated to fixing our luggage to prepare for the journey to our next destination the following day. A bit of downtime every so often is incredibly necessary for a really long trip so we don't get burned out. But as for me, the only thing I was looking forward to was visiting another historical capital city in Uzbekistan, Bukhara.