Sacred Place

Shah-i-Zinda

Samarkand β€’ Uzbekistan β€’ 700 m

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 XIβ€”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.