Registon (Registan) Square is a historic public square in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It's renowned for its ensemble of three madrassas - Ulugh Beg Madrassa from the Timurid period, and the Shardar and Tilakari (Tillyakori) Madrassas built during the Janid dynasty. People gathered in the square to hear public royal proclamations and for witnessing public executions. It was the hub of the Timurid Renaissance.

 

 The Shardar Madrassa is on the left side of the square

The Tillya Kori Madrassa is the centre.

The Ulugh Beg Madrassa is on the left side of the square. 

An opulent dome from one of the madrassas.

An equally opulent golden alcove. When it comes to places of worship, people are willing to donate their money. This reminds me of the golden dome of the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. 

  

At various times throughout the day, people will gather at the square to dance or conduct other performances like this group of dancers. 

This market place is called Siyob Bazaar 

Plov (Pilaf Rice) is akin to the national dish of Uzbekistan, available too in other Central Asian countries. It's cooked with meat (usually mutton or beef). spices and yellow carrots. It is served with various salads. I feel it to be a milder version of Nasi Briyani.

I happened to catch this vendor cooking Plov near Siyob Bazaar. Just look at his wok (frying pan).  Imagine how many portions he's cooking at one time,

Our favourite street in Samarkand to quench our thirst plus some pub grub.

The Green Bear Bar is more a pub than a bar. It is a nice place to down a few pints and have something to bite.

Without checking properly, we ended up with this chicken overload. There's not enough space to put this in after a few pints!

Ali, our guide, and SK at a paper-making facility in the village of Konigil in Samarkand.

In the process of making paper, the rinds of Mulberry branches are stripped.

Water is transferred from a running river to the workshop using a water wheel.

Ali is explaining a part of the process to two visitors.

Products from paper - dresses too can be made from paper.

Statue of Ulugh Beg outside the Ulugh Beg Observatory in Samarkand. He was the grandson of the great Amir Temur who built the observatory in 1428-29. Renowned as an astronomer and ruler, the observatory he built was considered one of the best astronomical centres in the Islamic medieval World.  It housed a giant subterranean 30-m marble sextant which could measure the solar year and >1,000 stars with unprecedented accuracy.

The entrance to what was a three-storey building which was looted and destroyed following Ulugh Beg's assassination in 1449, 

The remnants of the marble sextant remain intact underground surviving the destruction of the three storey building. This was buried until Russian archaeologist, Vasily Vyatkin, rediscovered it in 1908.Today, it is the centre piece of what was once a glorious observatory of the Galaxy. There is also a museum built in 1970 to commemorate Ulugh Beg which contains his Great works and other notable manuscripts.

Shakhi Zinda Ensemble is considered the most revered site and one of the finest architectural ensembles in Central Asia. Legend has it that it is the resting place of Kusam ibn Abbas, a cousin of Prophet Muhammad who brought Islam to Central Asia in the 7th Century. Over time, it became the resting place for Temur's family members, nobles and religious figures. The mausoleums here follow a unified architectural style. It is considered to be one of the greatest treasures of the Silk Road. 

One of the mausoleums  - it shows the unified architectural style with its square domed structure and an entrance framed by an elegant alcove. The facades feature brightly coloured glazed tiles.  

An alcove adorned with beautifully coloured riles

In view of its status as one of the most revered religious sites, pilgrims stream in from all over the Islamic World.

Window to one of the greatest architectural jewels of the Silk Road, recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Baden Baden Hotel in Tashkent was "home", comfort away from home.

 

This modern sculpture stands in contrast to the surrounding buildings which date back a few centuries. The letters CCC could be interpreted to mean the phases of change or evolution in the history of Uzbekistan made after Timur Amir (aka Tamerlane) established Uzbekistan in the 14th C, after Russian rule in 1991 and again in the 21C resulting from the tech evolution. 

The Centre for Islamic Civilisation (CIC, estbd 2017) is the largest cultural, scientific and educational complex in Uzbekistan. The centre piece housed here is the Samarkand Kufic Quran, one of the oldest Quran manuscripts in the World.  

Originally, the Samarkand Kufic Quran was housed in the Hazrati Imam Ensemble. After the CIC was opened, the Quran was transferred there. What is shown here is a copy of the original one.


  

The Hazrati Imam Ensemble is the spiritual and religious heart of Uzbekistan. Located next to the CIC, it houses two madrassas, two mosques and a mausoleum. It is built near the grave of Hazrati Imam, a scholar and one of the first Islamic preachers of Tashkent.  

The Ensemble Hazrati Imam as viewed from the CIC.

The Tashkent Monument of Courage was built after the 1966 Tashkent earthquake of Apr 26. People from all over poured in to help those affected and the city was rebuilt. This monument attests to the courage and tenacity of those people. The sculpture is of a man and a woman with a child carried on the woman's shoulders, signifying life. The broken tiles create the effects of the quake and the time it occurred is shown in the clock. 


The Monument of Independence pf Uzbekistan. The birds signify peace and quietness, good omen and high moral values.

Lunch of medium-done veal steak as sustenance. This was served at a restaurant that also specializes in Plov. 

The Mother and Child sculpture at Independence Park, shows a desire for peace, love and humanitarianism.

There is a metro station in Tashkent dedicated to Russian cosmonauts, aptly named Cosmonauts Station. It is decorated with wall-mounted plaques of Russian cosmonauts. This plaque is of Yuri Gagarin, their first cosmonaut and the first human who orbited Earth for 108 minutes on Apr 12. 1961 in the spacecraft Vostok 1. He is renowned for the exclamation "Poyekhali" which in Russian means "Let's go!".

A train departing from the station lit with a hue suggestive of the use of psychedelics?

A neat and clean station indicates good social behaviour in Uzbekistan. 

NOT EVEN THE SUMMIT BUT EVEREST RONG BUK BASE CAMP AND I FAILED!

The food offered at this Xi'an restaurant didn't give a prelude to the food we would eat for the rest of the journey. For the first meal, the food, although nice, was over-ordered. In Tibet, the food we ate later was so different.

The entrance looks welcoming. Staff was on hand to bring customers to their tables. We went to Xi'an of Shaanxi province principally to visit the Terracotta Warriors.

In Pit 1 of the museum, there are many columns of Terracotta Warriors like this one. In Mandarin, they are referred to as "Bing Ma Yong" (soldier and horse funerary statues). Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor, envisioned an afterlife where these warriors will protect him. It is estimated that 8,000 such warriors were buried with him at his death, many still unearthed. Altogether there are three pits. Pit 2 is made of a more diverse array of warriors including archers, cavalry and chariots while Pit 3 may be equated to the command centre with fewer statues but with more elaborate details. 

 The Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum Site Museum. The mausoleum itself, located about one and a half km away, is out of bounds to visitors. It is believed that many booby traps are incorporated into the burial site to keep out unwanted people like grave diggers.

The sign on the wall indicates where the first warrior was stumbled upon by a group of seven farmers digging a well in March 1974. When it was ascertained to be a terracotta warrior, archeological digs followed and one of the biggest Chinese archeological finds of the 20th Century came to light.

This section of Pit One is like a hospital where broken warriors are treated. When they are whole again, they will be "re-posted" to their stations. There have been two incidents of unauthorised people joining the warriors in the pits. On 16 Sep 2006, Pablo Wendel, a German student of Performing Arts in Hangzhou, entered a pit disguised as a terracotta warrior in a costume made from straw.  He was discovered but no punitive action was taken as he did not spoil anything. His passion for the warriors was accepted as part reason for not exonerating him. Sometime in June 05, it was reported that a Chinese citizen named Sun jumped into a pit, tugged and pulled at statues causing damage. It is believed he suffered from mental illness and is undergoing psychological assessment.  

A soldier on display. The warriors were painted at the time of burial. The colours have faded due to burial, exposure to air and humidity among other reasons.

This is the statue of an officer. Notice the differences in his "uniform". 

The sculptor made braids of the soldier's hair. An effort for small details. 

This may be an archer. Notice the positions of his hands.

A horse on display.

A gate leading to the old city of Xi'an.

As may be found in other ancient Chinese cities, this area serves as the killing zone for an enemy deceived into believing the gate leads to the city proper. Arrows will first be fired followed by the wielding of the sword.