The historical monuments of samarkand

Chapan-ata Mazar
The Chapan-ata Mazar (15th century) located to the north-east from Samarkand, was built in honour of the myphical holy "The Herdsmen's Father". Since olden times, his cult was very popular among the people especially among the cattle-breeders. By its architecture it was constructed as a mausoleum, but archaeological excavations did discover neither burial nor crypt. Being located on the rocky top the mazar is good observed from any point of the city.

Ulugbek Observatory
In the 20ties of 15th century on one of the hills, the governor of Samarkand, Mirzo Ulugbek, built the biggest observatory in the East that can not compare with any other in the world. His star tables Zidji-Gurgani plied by him in his observatory in Samarkand, have kept their scientific value to date: astronomic tables content coordinates of 1018 stars. By Babur's words, who have seen the observatory, it was the three-storied building covered with beautiful glazed titles. The observatory 30-meters height building had 46 meters in diameter. A huge instrument — sextant was placed in the observatory to observe the Moon, the Sun and other starts of the vault of heaven. Shortly, after the death of Ulugbek the observatory was destroyed and its location forgotten. In the early years of the 20th century the observatory was rediscovered and excavated by the archaeologist V.Vyatkin. The bottom part of its main device was found — a huge quadrant with a radius of 40.2 meters and an arc 63 meters long. Presently, the Ulugbek Museum is situated next to the remains of the former observatory. Pages of the Zij as well as medieval engravings, photographs of the archaeological dig and a collection of astronomical instruments are displayed at the museum.

Bibi-Khanym Mosque
The most grandiose construction to be built in Samarkand on the Emir's order, was the Bibi-Khanym Cathedral Mosque which was named after his senior wife. Construction of the mosque was started in 1399 and continued till 1404. According to Temur' idea this new mosque had to outshine anything he had seen before in the conquered lands. It was a large-scaled construction where the skilled masters' achievements of that time were concentrated including mosaics-, marble- and wooden-carvings, as well as plaster paintings. Public worship was started in the mosque in 1405 when Amir Temur died during military maneuver in China. The mosque was not yet completed. Today only some of the renovated buildings bear testimony of the former splendour of the Bibi-Khanum mosque.