So lots and lots of sights to see, we are off to an observatory which we are told was the most important one in history although it did manage to get lost for 450 years.
Called the Observatory of Ulughbek (try saying that after a beer or two) it is the site where Uleg Bek (thats easier) grandson of Tamerlane made some of the greatest achievements of the pre-telescope era of astronomy.
Beg determined the length of the tropical year as 365d 5h 49m 15s, which has an error of +25s, which when he calculated it in 1430 was quite a feat and something which is actually difficult to comprehend.
In fact most of this is well above my head (literally and figuratively) but I do recognize it is really really important
Uleg Bek, also built one of Samarkand’s greatest Islamic ‘University’ the Ulughbek medressa in 1420.
He was an exceptional man of culture. His own son had him decapitated, and his incredible astolab (he discovered 200 previously unknown stars) was leveled after his death in 1449 and not rediscovered in 1908,
No you can not ask me how it works. Google it like everyone else.
there are always weddings and people taking pictures of them at all historic monuments where ever we go (in a few days we get very close to one ourselves)
