Bibi-Khanym Mosque
— — the mosque a conqueror built in a hurry.
Not only on a wall.
“Timur built it in five years after returning from his Indian campaign in 1399, financing the walls with the spoils of Delhi and the labour with around ninety captured elephants. The main dome cracked almost immediately. Earthquakes finished what haste began. Soviet restoration in the 1970s pulled the great portal back from the edge of collapse, and the cobalt and turquoise tilework now carries again.
Bibi-Khanym Mosque, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Bibi-Khanym Mosque stands in the old city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan, a short walk north of the Registan and adjacent to the Siyab Bazaar. It was built between 1399 and 1404 on the order of Timur (Tamerlane), the founder of the Timurid Empire, and was among the largest mosques in the Islamic world at completion. The complex spans a courtyard of roughly 78 by 64 metres, with a main portal rising about 35 metres. Bibi-Khanym is part of the Samarkand UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed as Crossroads of Cultures in 2001.
The facade carries cobalt and turquoise majolica in calligraphic bands, with the ribbed melon dome of the main prayer hall rising above the courtyard. A large marble Quran stand stands at the courtyard centre, traditionally credited to Timur's grandson Ulugh Beg. The mosque began failing within Timur's own lifetime: vaults cracked, masonry shed, and by the nineteenth century much of the structure was a ruin. Major Soviet restoration began in 1974 and continued for decades; the great portal and dome owe their present uprightness to that work.
Bibi-Khanym is open daily, with standard adult admission around 50,000 Uzbek sum, payable in cash at the gate. The walk from the Registan takes roughly ten minutes through pedestrian streets. The Siyab Bazaar next door is Samarkand's main covered market and pairs naturally with the visit. April-May and September-October are the most comfortable seasons; July temperatures routinely reach 38 degrees Celsius and shade in the courtyard is limited. Samarkand International Airport receives daily flights from Tashkent, Istanbul, and several Russian cities, and the high-speed Afrosiyob train from Tashkent takes around two hours.