Samarkand

Samarkand is a major city in southeastern Uzbekistan in the Zerafshan River valley, about 270 kilometers from the capital Tashkent, with a population of 882,000 as of 2026, the country's second largest after Tashkent. It prospered for centuries as a crossroads of the Silk Road between China, Persia and Europe; Alexander the Great captured it in 329 BC under the name Maracanda, and in 1370 the conqueror Timur made it his capital, rebuilding the city and drawing artisans from across his empire to make it a center of the Timurid Renaissance. UNESCO inscribed its historic core as a World Heritage Site in 2001 for landmarks including Registan Square.