Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
MADRASAH AND MAUSOLEUM OF BIBI KHATUN (1399-
1405)
One of the most delicate and glorious works of its times the Bibi Khatun
complex was built for one of Timur's wife's Lady Bibi. The structure con-
sists of a Friday mosque, madrasah and the tomb of Lady Bibi, both of
which are decorated with turquoise glazed tiles and magnificent doors that
rise tall as if reaching out to the sky. Verses are written with tiles on top the
entrance gates of the shrine. Esin visited the complex when she was in Sa-
markand and describes it: “while one enters through the monumental gates
to the courtyard, a yellow rose garden and nightingales welcomes you as
if you have arrived into a lady's house” (Esin, 1997). Commissioned by a
woman, having an extremely feminine texture, this fine piece of art could
be, if needed, depicted as a lapis ring. Queen Samarkand wears this trea-
sure with honor on her left hand like a wedding ring (Fig. 12).
FIGURE 12
Bibi Khatun Madrasah (sonnurozcan.blogspot.com).
GUR EMIR MAUSOLEUM (15TH CENTURY)
The structure embraces the tomb and the madrahsa of Timur, which guid-
ed the Central Asian, Persian and Afghan architectural movement for two
centuries. The most important feature of the Gur Emir is its 34 meters
high melon shaped dome covered with fluted and superbly colorful mosaic
tiles. The sunlight reflected from the ribbed dome during different times of
the day, transforms these ceramics and creates the allusion of birds flying
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