Samarkand · a Light

Tigers and a human faced sun sit above a college door

The Registan in Samarkand is a public square hemmed in on three sides by colleges. Ulugh Beg built the first in 1420 and taught astronomy in it. Facing it, the Sher-Dor madrasa was finished in 1636, and its portal carries two great cats stalking deer, each with a rising sun on its back, and each sun has a human face. Figural images on a madrasa front were unusual, and the tiling has survived to be argued about. The third side, Tilya-Kori, was finished around 1660 and its prayer hall is gilded. In 1932 a leaning minaret at the Ulugh Beg madrasa was pulled back upright with cables and jacks rather than dismantled, an operation engineers still write about.

Registan, Samarkand · 1420 to 1660