The Registan takes its name from a humble Persian word for sandy place, yet the square it frames became the ceremonial heart of Samarkand and the grandest architectural ensemble on the Silk Road. Three enormous madrasahs — Islamic colleges — face one another across it, raised over two centuries. The Ulugh Beg Madrasah came first, between 1417 and 1420, built by Timur's astronomer-grandson. Two hundred years later the governor Yalangtush Bakhodir added the Sher-Dor and the gold-filled Tilya-Kori. The Sher-Dor carries the ensemble's boldest stroke: across its portal, two striped tigers chase white deer beneath suns with human faces. Sheathed head to foot in turquoise and lapis tile, the three facades are counted the zenith of Timurid art and, with the rest of old Samarkand, belong to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Step onto the square and the three facades close around you; the higher you look, the more the tiled patterns climb toward the sky. By day the sun sets the turquoise mosaics alight and the Sher-Dor tigers seem to spring from above the arch. Inside the Tilya-Kori, a mosque lined floor to dome in gold leaf glows even in shadow. The real change comes at dusk, when the facades turn honey-coloured and the floodlights lift the three madrasahs out of the dark. That any of it stands so straight is its own story, involving a minaret and a team of Soviet engineers. Today the square is open to visitors, all three colleges can be entered, and the courtyards behind the great portals — their old student cells now craft stalls — hold a quiet the crowded facade never hints at.