Sacred Place

Shah-i-Zinda

Place type
Sacred Place
Elevation
700 m

Field notes

The field account

Shah-i-Zinda ("living tsar") is a monument of medieval architecture in Samarkand (Uzbekistan), a set of mausoleums of the Karakhanid and Timurid nobility. The existing complex consists of eleven mausoleums, successively attached to each other during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Nevertheless, during the excavations on the eastern slope of the city of Afrasiab, remains of mausoleums of the XI—XII centuries were discovered. In 2001, all the mausoleums of Shah-i-Zinda and other ancient buildings of Samarkand are included in the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Map margin

Where it sits