Samarkand is the reason why I decided to visit Uzbekistan, when I booked the ticket at Uzbekistan Airline office; I saw the poster of the very beautiful Registan so I asked the travel agent that should I trust the poster? The agent immediately said "You will see the better one at the real place!" After that Samarkand became the paradigm of my Uzbekistan itinerary. I arrived Samarkand in the evening, the traffic congestion greeted me with unexpectedly surprised, after a peaceful week in Khiva and Bukhara, Samarkand really reminded the chaotic life of modern urban!

I started my city tour at the Gur Amir Mausoleum, the resting place of Tamerlane; for exterior the beautiful blue mosaic dome was just amazing, and for interior the golden mosaics inside the building were just breathtaking, and in my opinion one of the most beautiful Muslim mausoleum I've ever seen. After the mausoleum, I went to Ulughbek Observatory, a ruin of very impressive ancient observatory, its museum was nice; however, many insightful information from my guide made me question the accuracy of the exhibition and object displayed. Then I continued my trip to see the famous Registan. With high hope and excitement, I found all magnificent three buildings complex to be exactly what I wanted to see, there facades were just magnificent with bright and colorful mosaics. However I was deeply disappointed with the bad status of the interior mosaics and glazed tiles inside the courtyard, seem that Uzbek used their whole money to maintain the outside of the buildings, except the gilded ceiling of Tilya-Kori madrassah was truly outstanding and truly one of my favorite of Registan complex. Then I saw Bibi-Khanym Mosque, claimed to be the largest mosque in the ancient time. Its gigantic size and tiny details of mosaic were impressive. Later I went to Shah-i-Zinda complex, the royal necropolis of Tamerlane family. The complex was just truly beautiful with beautiful mosaic art that maybe better than the Registan. Also with its modest size, I could see more details of mosaic and glazed tiles easier than other places and that made me really loved Shah-i-Zinda for its superb quality of art.

In my travel life, I never seen a place that so colorful with mosaic and glazed tiles that similar with Samarkand before except the famous Gaudi's work in Barcelona and the royal temples of Bangkok, but they were totally different arts and should not be compared. Also its history behind were also interesting with countless of legends of the Silk Road and Tumarid dynasty. For me, Samarkand was truly the world class site and one of the most enchanting UNESCO world heritage sites I ever visited.