Timur’s Summer Palace, the White Palace was planned as the most grandiose of all Timur’s constructions. It was started in 1380 by artisans deported by Timur from the recently conquered Khwarezm. Unfortunately, only traces of its gigantic 65 m gate-towers survive, with blue, white and gold mosaics. Above the entry of the Ak-Saray are big letters saying: “If you challenge our power -look at our buildings!”
Today, the towers are 38 m high. The size of the palace is really very impressive the main courtyard was about 120 m wide and 240 m lon (stretching right up to where the modern stature is now)
Calculations from the proportions of the surviving elements lead us to believe that the length of the main portal was 70 m and that the towers at the corners were more than 80 m high. The 22 m wide span of the arch of the main entrance was the largest in Central Asia. The mosaic and majolica work in the niche of the portal is particularly refined. The delicate foliage ornamentation also contains calligraphic inscriptions of verses from the Quran as well as a few secular inscriptions.
Destroyed by the ruler of Bukhara, Abdullah Khan. The legend tells that Abdullah Khan was riding to Shahrizabs and saw the palace at a distance. He sent a messenger to the city as he thought that he was already near of it. The messengers nearly died of exhaustion, but the palace was still far away. The khan got angry and ordered the palace to be destroyed. (fanciful but probably has a ring of truth in it, and they stopped pulling it down when Abdullah Khan died)
I have to say even though most of this is a ruin I think it is the most impressive thing I have seen on this whole trip. There was something about the size and what it would have been like when it was completed. It is also fascinating to thing that 600 years ago that they could create things this big and this well constructed. It just had something about the power and the opulence of a ruler who could command people to what ever he wanted without question.
It really is just a shell of its former self and Shakhrisabz would possibly have slipped back into a sleepy backwater if it was not for this particular building.
The town is small and not really that inviting but is it littered with ruins all of which are historically and architecturally significant.
To finish off quite a day we visit the Kok Gumbaz mausoleum complex called Dorus-Saodat (Seat of Power and Might), which contains the Tomb of Jehangir, Timurs eldest and favorite son.
The adjacent mosque is said to house the tomb of a revered 8th century imam Amir Kulal.
and of course a few pictures of the locals.
We stayed in a “well dodgy” hotel that night