SHAHRISABZ, UZBEKISTAN: AK-SARAY PALACE AND AMIR TIMUR

As we finished our visit to Kok Bumbaz Mosque in Shahrisabz, Uzbekistan, in the distance we noticed two crumbling towers. They turned out to be our next destination.

This is what remains of Ak-Saray, the Mongol conqueror Timur's summer palace and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000:

Of everything Timur built, Ak-Saray ("the White Palace") was planned to be the most magnificent. Construction began in about 1380 and took roughly 25 years to complete. According this this site, the exterior measurements of the entire palace are not known, but the main inner courtyard was about 400 x 800 feet. A football field is about 160 feet wide and 350 feet long, so the courtyard was bigger than four football fields!  If the courtyard was that enormous, imagine the size of the entire palace!

The entrance gate, the only part still standing, once towered 230 feet (over 20 stories) and was a symbol of Timur's power. Our guide had a drawing of what experts thought it looked like. It must have been stunning.

It's no surprise that conquerors who invaded this area in in subsequent centuries chose the palace as a target for destruction. By the late 18th century, only the portal pillars remained. 

Today what is left of Ak-Saray Palace stands pretty much unrestored, giving tourists an idea of what other historical sites in this area, including the most famous architectural relics in Samarkand, would have looked like when the government began an aggressive restoration campaign in the early 20th century. Portions of blue, white, and gold mosaics still cling to the pillar surfaces, giving the impression of a very complex, uncompleted jigsaw puzzle, and the sharp angles remain surprisingly uneroded by over six centuries of baking sun and pummeling storms.

Although we didn't see anything that looked like writing, supposedly above the entry are (were?) the ironic words: "If you challenge our power, look at our buildings!"  (Never taunt an invading conqueror.) Maybe those words fell with the arch.

We saw a model of Ak-Saray in a museum in Samarkand with all of its tiles intact, but still missing the arch:

As are most monuments in The Stans, Ak-Saray Palace is a popular place for wedding photos. We saw many wedding photo ops on our journey along the Silk Road, and this was pretty much the standard dress--yards and yards of poofy tulle:

The bridesmaid's slinky, colorful dress is quite a contrast:

Note the vendors set up against one of the two towers in the first of the two bridal pictures.  At the base of the other tower was a man selling his art. We stopped for a look and Bob fell in love with this painting of old men gathered around a fire or some other kind of light and playing their musical instruments:

He purchased it for the equivalent of about $30. We have had it framed, and I think it turned out quite well:

When I was choosing a frame, I noticed what appears to be the artist's signature and the date on the back. Can someone who reads Cyrillic script translate for me?

It was time to move on, and looking between the two stanchions, we could see a figure of a man in the distance. I read somewhere that this statue may mark the center spot of what was once the entire palace. Did I say HUGE?

The statue, of course, is of Amir Temur (Timur or Tamerlane in English), Mongol conqueror of this region and founder of the Timurid Dynasty, which lasted from 1370 to about 1507.

"Amir" is a title of respect, equivalent to "commander," "general," or "prince."  In English we often see it as "emir" (as in United Arab "Emirates").

A marker at the site notes that the statue was created under the leadership of Islam Karimov, the President of Uzbekistan from 1990 until his death in 2016. If you are interested in Central Asian politics, read the Wikipedia entry about Karimov. What started out as a democratic process at the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union turned into what amounted to a "presidency for life" situation.  And yet, our local guide seemed totally fine with it. In spite of a fair amount of repression, Karimov did bring stability to Uzbekistan at a time when there could have been much more upheaval. His story parallels most (if not all) of the other presidents' stories in the Stans.

While perhaps not quite as ruthless, Karimov had some of the same need for control and power that Timur had.

Time to head back to the train.  We passed these beautiful children . . .

. . . and when we arrived at the train platform, we discovered a very fancy dinner set up for us. That is our train behind the tables, so we were able to drop off our stuff and come back outside for dinner. Wow! Talk about the royal treatment! What did they do, stop all the other trains from coming in for two hours?

Finger sandwiches, marinated veggies, and pickles were on the tables when we got there, appetizers to munch on as we listened to a lecture about Timur/Tamerlane by our teacher Michael Wilcox.

Some interesting facts:

• Timur was born in Shahrisabz in 1836. 

• He start his conquests as a young man by stealing sheep. In the process, he got shot in the leg with an arrow, which led to a limp he had for the rest of his life, and hence his nickname "Timur the Lame," or "Tamerlane," as he is sometimes known in the West. His favorite nickname for himself, however, was "The Scourge of God."

• Timur wanted to reconnect the trade routes of the Silk Road. He consolidated his power first in the area that is currently The Stans, then added Persia/Iran, the Russia, Turkey, Damascus, and Baghdad. At the end of his conquests, his kingdom stretched from Turkey to Kazakhstan, and from present-day Moscow to Delhi.

• He tactics were a brilliant (and brutal). Between 14 and 17 million people were killed in his rise to power, mostly civilians.

•  Timur had a massive building program, and his architectural style influenced the Russian arch (as seen in St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow) and India's Taj Mahal.

• Timur created a version of chess called "Greater Chess" that has 8 extra pieces.

• He died of a fever in Kazakhstan on his way to invade Ming China in 1405. He is buried in Samarkand, about 50 miles from Shahrisabz.

• In 1941 his tomb was opened by Russian scientists and his body was examined. They did find evidence of an arrow injury in one of his legs.

• "Tamerlane," a long poem written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1827, made this Mongol ruler and more familiar figure in the United States. (One of the twelve extant copies of the original poem fetched $662,500 at auction at Christie's in 2009, breaking the previous record for a piece of American literature.)

• Central Asia reveres Timur, but Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia hate him.

We ended our stay in Shahrisabz with candlelight dining on barbecued pork and chicken, potatoes, roasted eggplant, roasted peppers, and breads. It was a delicious meal:

We lingered over the meal, enjoying the smell of the barbecue, the happy buzz of voices, the flavorful dinner, and the magical atmosphere. (Mainly, I think we were putting off the moment when we had to crawl back into our tiny cabins for another night of clattering, teeth-jarring travel.)