Shakhrisyabz or Shakhrisabz is a small but lively town with many monuments related to the lives of Tamerlane, the national hero of Uzbekistan, and his family. Contradict to previous reviews; Shakhrisyabz is now a part of the main tourist route of this country as a lunch stopover between Bukhara and Samarkand with few hours for monuments sightseeing, so Shakhrisyabz is developing to serve tourism industry.

As mentioned Shakhrisyabz is related to Tamerlane as his birthplace, his home and hoped to be buried here, and the main tourist attractions are the ruins of Ak-Saray Palace, the mosaic here are the real jewel of Timurid art, Kuk-Gumbaz, which is the Friday mosque of the city with unique soft white tone interior, and Khazrati-Imam Complexes, planned to be a burial place of Tamerlane in the crypt. Shakhrisyabz is also the capital of Uzbekistan wedding, when I visited Shakhrisyabz in summer, the wedding season of Uzbek, the Tamerlane statue in front of the Ak-Saray Palace was the prime wedding photo shooting place of almost ten couples and the surrounding restaurants were in full swing of wedding parties, my guide informed me that the town catered at least 45 couples per day at the moment!

Going to Shakhrisyabz is a real rewarding as the town is the place to admire local Uzbek people and culture and its bazaar is just great. Also, the route from Samarkand is absolutely breathtaking along the Fan Mountain; however, Shakhrisyabz is not in the same league of Samarkand, Bukhara or Khiva in terms of grand monuments, and in my opinion, this place is just a fine WHS, actually the Uzbek wedding culture is maybe more interesting than the city itself.