Metravel city quest
City Samarkand: free walking route “Quest: Timur's Curse and the Living King” along the sights. 11 points. Approximately 3 h. Quests and legends - straight
Samarkand has an age that is hard to fit in your head: the city has stood here for about two and a half thousand years, and Alexander the Great entered it when it was already considered ancient. But the face Samarkand shows today was given to it by one man — Amir Timur, also known as Tamerlane. He brought craftsmen here from all across conquered Asia and demanded that they build so that a traveller who caught sight of the domes felt his knees buckle.
Half a millennium later it turned out that cities of such scale accumulate not only history but legends — and Samarkand has enough of them for a book of their own. We will walk through the most persistent ones: about the stone that was carried off and brought back; about the dream that frightened a Persian conqueror; about excavations begun right before a war; about the architect who lost his head over another man's wife; about the baker who told his sovereign what the palace pastry was missing; and about the saint who took off his own head and went underground — alive.
The route is on foot, about three kilometres, strictly from south to north: from Timur's tomb through the main square and the cathedral mosque to the bazaar and the ancient hill. There is no backtracking — go in order, and each next stop will lie a little ahead of the last.
What to do: 1) Read the story and the task at each stop. 2) Find the place on the map and walk up to it. 3) Look around and answer the question.
Dress for the weather: in summer it is close to forty degrees here, so bring plenty of water, and it is best to wait out midday in the shade. And remember that almost everything on the route is a working shrine: take your shoes off before entering prayer halls, and it is best to cover your shoulders and knees.
We begin at the very south — at the Gur-Emir mausoleum, where lies the man with whom it all began.
The route points in order — what these places are and why they are interesting. Tasks and answers stay inside the quest.
Gur-Emir means “tomb of the emir”. Timur did not build this mausoleum for himself: the tomb was laid down in 1403 over the grave of his beloved grandson Muhammad Sultan, who had died on campaign.
Opening hours: daily, usually 9:00–18:00; it closes later in summer — check on site · Ticket: for foreign visitors 75 000 sum (February 2026); at the start of 2026 prices for Samarkand's monuments were raised noticeably — check at the ticket office
This stop is optional, and it lies right on your way. From Gur-Emir walk north: in a couple of minutes a squat cubic mausoleum under a plain dome will appear on your right, without glazed tiles and without gilding.
You have come out onto the Registan — the “sandy place”. Once six roads met here, a bazaar roared and decrees were proclaimed; the square you see took more than two hundred years to take shape, and the first building on it was the Ulugh Beg Madrasa, built in 1417–1420.
Opening hours: according to the ensemble's administration: 20 February to 20 November 7:00–24:00, 20 November to 20 February 8:00–20:00 · Ticket: one ticket for the whole ensemble, all three madrasas; for foreign visitors 100 000 sum (February 2026) — check at the ticket office or on the website
On the opposite side of the Registan the subject becomes unexpected: instead of a single geometric pattern above the entrance, a hunt unfolds. The master showed a predator chasing a hoofed animal, and beside them placed a fantastic detail with a human face.
Opening hours: according to the ensemble's administration: 20 February to 20 November 7:00–24:00, 20 November to 20 February 8:00–20:00 · Ticket: included in the general ticket for the Registan ensemble; for foreign visitors 100 000 sum (February 2026)
The third side of the square was closed by the same Yalangtush Bahadur in 1646–1660. The building got its name from its chief feature: Tilya-Kori means “decorated with gold”, and this is no exaggeration — the scale of the gilding here surpassed everything that had been done in Central Asia until then.
Opening hours: according to the ensemble's administration: 20 February to 20 November 7:00–24:00, 20 November to 20 February 8:00–20:00 · Ticket: included in the general ticket for the Registan ensemble; for foreign visitors 100 000 sum (February 2026)
An optional stop, and it is half a minute away. Look behind the Sher-Dor Madrasa: there stands a squat six-sided building under a dome — Chorsu.
Timur returned from the Indian campaign with spoils, elephants and craftsmen — and ordered a mosque built that would have no equal. Construction ran from 1399 to 1404: the main dome rose forty metres, the minarets by the entrance portal fifty, and the whole city gathered here for Friday prayer.
Opening hours: daily, usually 9:00–18:00; later in summer — check on site · Ticket: for foreign visitors 65 000 sum (February 2026); check the price at the ticket office
An optional stop, a hundred metres away: cross the street from the mosque portal. Here stands a small octagonal mausoleum — a tomb for the women of Timur's family, built in the same years as the mosque opposite.
Opening hours: usually open the same hours as the mosque opposite; sometimes closed — then look at it from outside
Here is a rest stop. The bazaar has operated by the mosque's walls for as long as the mosque has stood: more than seven hectares of rows, mountains of dried apricots, raisins, nuts, halva and spices, and sellers who will insist you taste something even if you had no plan to buy.
Opening hours: daily, roughly 7:00–19:00; the selection is noticeably better in the morning · Ticket: free entry
From the bazaar climb the rise to the north-east — and you will find yourself on the very edge of Afrasiab, the hill under which pre-Islamic Samarkand lies.
Opening hours: a working mosque, open in daylight hours; it is better not to enter the hall during prayer · Ticket: entry is usually free
The final stop — and the most beautiful. Shah-i-Zinda translates from Persian as “the living king”, and this is not a metaphor but a plot.
Opening hours: April to October usually 8:00–19:00, November to March 9:00–17:00 · Ticket: for foreign visitors 80 000 sum (February 2026); fares were raised at the start of the year — check at the ticket office
This route is part of Metravel city quests. Below are the other quests in this city and cities with quests nearby.