SAMARKAND, UZBEKISTAN: SHAKHI ZINDA MAUSOLEUM

There are two gasp-inducing, over-the-top gorgeous places we visited in Samarkand, the sites that make this city  the main tourist destination for Uzbekistan, and the places I had seen pictures of before our trip that made me so excited to come here. One is Registan Square, the subject of my next post, and the other is Shakhi-Zinda (or Shah-i-Zinda) Mausoleum. If you haven't guessed by now, mausoleums are a big deal in The Stans.

I love the word "necropolis," literally "city of the dead," and nowhere does that term apply more than at Shakhi-Zinda, a small "city" of twenty gorgeous tile-covered "houses," each one a monument to the dead and most an actual tomb. Ironically, the words "Shakhi-Zinda" mean "Living King" in Persian.

We had come to expect these grand entrances, but on this portal to Shakhi-Zinda I especially like the Arabic script, decorating the outer vertical edges in addition to their usual place on the horizontal lintel:

Kusam ibn Abbas, the cousin of Muhammad, is interred at Shakhi-Zinda, making it a pilgrimage site. I don't know if this blue and black ensemble is the "go to a holy place" (aka pilgrimage clothing) for men, somewhat like the white shirts and ties worn by the men in my faith who go to the temple, or if it is standard dress, but it seemed to be the outfit of the day.

The women had a little more variety in their dress, but it was still very unlike Western clothing:

We joined the locals entering the compound:

Aside from our large group, there seemed to be few other foreigners visiting. I was reminded yet again that Uzbekistan (along with the other four "Stans") has not made it onto most tourists' maps, let alone their "Must Visit" lists. Again, I felt excited to be traveling here before the great invasion from the West that will someday undoubtedly occur.

The first thing we saw as we entered the complex was a long, tall flight of stone steps. Our guide told us that we should count the steps on the way up and then again when we went down. If the number was the same, it meant we were sinless.

I've started counting steps every time I climb a staircase. If that's all it takes to be sinless, I'm happy to do it.

I love this woman's combination of traditional dress and a black leather jacket, and that spotless white outfit on her child! Darling!

The women are so intriguing. What is this older woman's life like? Where does she live? What is the story behind her beautiful embroidered coat?  (And by the way, I was actually focusing on the stairs when I took this picture, but both women showed up in it, so I cropped the picture to get a better look.)

We really loved our guide, Yulia Auskhadeeva (not positive on that last name). She had excellent English and had just the right amount of information mixed with interesting cultural insights. Along with a male guide we had in Marrakech, she is one of the best guides we've had. Here, she shows us a drawing of the Mausoleum:

You can see that it's really just a long street. Among these buildings there are eleven ginormous mausoleums built mostly in the 14th and 15th centuries:

One of the passageways has this gorgeous ceiling similar to what is common in Beijing. 2,500 flight miles away:

The street is narrow, and so we were always looking up and feeling small, like Gulliver in the land of the giant Brobdingnags:

Each building uses similar colors but not the same patterns or architectural details. Looking at all these pictures, you may think they are of the same building, but they aren't. It's a little like a "Spot the Differences" game from an old Highlights children's magazine where two pictures were printed side-by-side and children were supposed to find the different features. Pay attention to the shapes of the doors and the placement of borders around those doors:

Tiny pieces and intricate, varied patterns of tiles cover the walls like an exquisite quilt. This is some of the richest, most beautiful tilework in the Muslim world:

The Amirzoda Mausoleum, built in 1386, is one of my favorites:

From the right spot I could see the domes behind the tall entry walls:

Everywhere I looked, there was something interesting to see:

A sign identifies one of the buildings as the Shodi Mulk Oko Mausoleum, erected in 1372 in honor of one of Temur's sisters and his niece:

The interior dome evoked the same awe that a cathedral dome does. Isn't this superb? There are at least four different tile patterns in the eight sections:

More patterns cover the walls. The ornamented, textured vaults remind me of the muqarnas designs in the Alhambra in Spain (also Islamic architecture):

Uzbek money lies undisturbed at the end of one of the tombs. A prayer offering of some kind, perhaps?

The wood embellishments are as beautiful as the tiles:

Temur must have been a good brother.  Here is another mausoleum built in the later 14th century for another one of his sisters who died in 1385, the Shirin Beka Oka Mausoleum.

It's impossible to describe the impact of seeing this in real life:

The variety of design inside is mind-boggling. How did they keep coming up with patterns?

This room has some pictorial images, fairly uncommon in a mosque:

In addition to the many patterns of tile, there is variety in the shape of the buildings themselves, as in the 14th century Octagonal Mausoleum:

Here you can see that the domes are tiled, not painted.

Restoration work continues in several places. I'm sure it's a constant battle to maintain these fronts. (Hey, who is the cute guy in the middle in the blue shirt?)

The side walls are not quite as ornate, but are still very beautiful:

I love the purple in this one, along with the clean white accents that have a shell-like quality. It hardly looks real, right? Almost like something out of one of those detailed coloring books that are so popular among adults right now?

Or perhaps like a movie set created on a smaller scale but blown up using computer imaging?

The narrow avenue and towering buildings just kept going and going . . .

Proof that we were really there!

Temur was nice to his wives too. The Kutlug Oko Mausoleum was built for one of them (maybe as compensation for her name?):

I'm missing a photo of the outside, but this might be the inside. Yeah, it is a little difficult to identify everything at this point. There's just so MUCH of it!

One of the most important buildings in Shakhi Zinda is the Kusam Ibn Abbas Complex, which is the tomb of a "cousin and close associate" of the prophet Mohammad who "was one of the first missionaries of Islamic religion in Central Asia":

I am all out of synonyms for "exquisite" and "superb" and "breathtaking."  It was all of those, and more:

Yulia told us that for Muslims (at least those in her part of the world), making a pilgrimage to this site three times is the same as going to Mecca on the Hajj.

Pretty much all we could do was sit and stare, like our friends on the right below:

Even the locals sat down for awhile to take it all in:

These views from the windows and doors are a wonderful metaphor for how our understanding is shaped by travel experiences:

At the very end of the avenue is a modern mausoleum of sorts, a 20th and 21st century Muslim cemetery:

While it doesn't have the glory of the Shakhi Zinda Mausoleum, it was still very fun to stroll around in:

Some aspects of the cemetery reminded me of cemeteries I have visited in the United States and Europe:

We saw this practice of putting the deceased one's photo on tombstones all over The Stans. I kind of like it. It definitely adds a sense of personality to the cemetery. One can almost imagine these faces springing to life during a full moon:

As we turned to go back, we were impressed by our view of the domes:

We entered the tunnel and time warp that returned us to the 14th century:

. . . and then journey through the past and into the present once again:

On the street, the traditional dress was occasionally replaced with modern clothing. This beautiful child wore a hat that came with its own pigtails, and her father was proud to show her off:

In the modern world it was easy to fill our hungry bellies with delicious food:

. . . and the focus was very much on the living:

Later that night we ventured out on our own to escape the constant of a long, crowded dinner. There were eight of us, so we had to take two taxis.  They cost 92¢ each, but the drivers were so insane that we feared for our lives.

We had fun ordering massive amounts of food. Geneil's meal never came, but it didn't matter. We had all we could eat . . . and more:

. . . and it took a LOT of bills to pay for it. But many bills does not equal a lot of money. All of this is only $40 (less than $7/person).

Unbelievable. Temur himself never had it this good.