Draped like an ancient shawl across the Zarafshan River valley, the city of Samarkand may date back as far as 6,000 years, though it was then known as Maracanda to the Greeks. At the crossroads of history, the city was invaded by the likes of Alexander the Great (who claimed that its beauties defied his imagination), and Timur, known to the West as Tamerlane (born in nearby Shakhrisabz), who captured the city in 1364, dubbing it “the Eden of the East” and making it his capital. In modern times, artists and visionaries from John Keats to Oscar Wilde have sought to capture the romance of this ancient Silk Road oasis.

Despite a series of earthquakes which made the city virtually unlivable for part of the 18th century, Samarkand remained a city so desirable that the Russians seized control in 1868; within two decades, they had linked the expanding Russian empire to Samarkand via the Trans-Caspian Railway. The city was named the capital of the Uzbek SSR in 1924, a role Moscow transferred to Tashkent in 1930.

Tourism is a major industry for Samarkand, with its population of 400,000, attracting visitors who come to tour bright blue tiled mosques, historic mausoleums and delicately detailed medressas (academy buildings).

Perhaps the city’s most renowned area, the Registan -- the medieval marketplace that was once the center of the city’s lively trade -- features a stunning array of decorated medressas and intricately tiled minarets.

Other landmarks include the Shahi Zinda, the 13th-15th century mausoleums, where the court favorites of Tamerlane were buried; the mausoleum is also said to entomb Qusam ibn-Abbas, cousin to the Prophet Muhammed. Tamerlane, along with his two sons and two grandsons, is buried in the less grand Guri Amir mausoleum.

The ruins of the Great Mosque are all that’s left of what was once the tallest building in all of Islam. Legend has it that the veil Moslem women are required to wear dates back to its construction; the architect allegedly fell in love with Tamerlane’s Chinese-born wife, Bibi-Khanym, who was building the mosque to surprise her husband while he was away on another conquest. Upon his return, Tamerlane discovered evidence of an illicit kiss, ordered the lovelorn architect’s execution, and allegedly decreed that women cover their features so that no man would ever be tempted again by their wicked beauty.