The gilded dome
Kundal relief painting rich in gold.
Наумов Андрей — CC BY 3.0 · Наумов Андрей — CC BY 3.0 · Akhemen — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Oqsaqol — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Oqsaqol — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Aksaray Mausoleum (Oqsaroy in Uzbek, Turkic for White Palace) is a small 15th-century Timurid tomb behind the Gur-e Amir in old Samarkand. None of the burials in its crypt has been securely identified. Its outside is plain brick, but inside it is covered in kundal: ornament raised in relief, then painted in colours and gold. When and for whom it was built is unrecorded. Archaeologist Mikhail Masson thought it was meant for Abd al-Latif Mirza, who had his father Ulugh Beg put to death in 1449, was himself killed in 1450, and could not lie beside him in the Gur-e Amir. Its likeness to the Ishratkhona places it rather in the 1470s, perhaps as a vault for the male line of Sultan Abu Sa'id (reigned 1451–1469). Badly decayed by the 1870s, it was conserved in 1924–25 and restored with private funds in 2007. Inside, a cross-shaped hall rises to a dome on a tall cylindrical drum, carried by intersecting arches. White, blue and gold kundal covers the walls and dome; the Uzbek national encyclopaedia counts 67 different motifs in a single arch. A mosaic dado of flower vases on blue-and-white tiles rings the hall, and an unrestored stretch of wall keeps original tile fragments. A narrow stepped passage leads down to the octagonal, marble-lined crypt. It stands about 90 m south-east of the Gur-e Amir's dome, on Ak Saray Street behind that complex. The Ruhabad Mausoleum is about 350 m north-west and the Registan about 900 m north-east, as the crow flies. Allow 15 to 30 minutes.
Kundal relief painting rich in gold.
Mosaic flower vases in blue and white.
Marble-lined, down a narrow passage.
Ak Saray Street, behind the Gur-e Amir, central Samarkand
Gur-e Amir, Timur's MausoleumThe mausoleum of the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur (Tamerlane) in Samarkand, whos1 minute walk4.8
Ruhabad MausoleumA plain but imposing domed brick mausoleum whose name, Ruhabad, means «abode of 4 minutes walk4.3
Registan SquareThe historic square at the heart of Samarkand, centre of the Timurid Empire and 11 minutes walk4.7
Imam al-Maturidi Mausoleum (Samarkand)This memorial complex in Samarkand's old Chokardiza cemetery stands over the gra20 minutes walk
Bibi-Khanym MosqueOne of Samarkand's most important monuments and, in the 15th century, one of the21 minutes walk4.7No. Both names mean White Palace, but the Ak-Saray Palace is the ruin of the palace Timur built in Shahrisabz between 1380 and 1404, about 66 km south as the crow flies; this is a small 15th-century Timurid tomb in Samarkand.
The building has no outer decoration at all, and the Uzbek national encyclopaedia says its exterior was never finished: the outer dome over the main hall and its eight-sided drum were left incomplete.