April 30, 2009

#11 Coolest Place - Registan in Samarkand, Uzbekistan


Samarkand is one of the oldest cities in the world and home to one the most amazing sites. Registan was built here about 600 years ago as a major stop on the Silk Route and was later the blueprint for the Taj Mahal. Samarkand is essentially a city of blue domed, mosaic-filled Taj Mahals. It has an exceptional culture, people and history - it is worth spending a week here and Bukara. Some of the the best carpets in the world are avaliable here.

We almost crossed the border to buy carpets in Afghanistan, but ran out of time, as we needed to fly out of the capital Tashent, to meet our girlfriends in Istanbul. It was very fortunate as that was the day the Taliban made it over the mountains, and killed several hundred people and virtually every westerner.


Ulug Beg was the ruler here in the 1400's and built this astronomical observatory in 1428. He was responsible for the most accurate star catalog of the time. The roof of the onservatory is painted with constellations (above).


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