Timur, also known as Tamerlane, was known as both a fearsome military leader and a great patron of the arts, reportedly sparing the lives of artists, craftsmen, and architects in the cities he conquered so that he could bring them back to work on his capital. According to the account of Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, Henry III’s ambassador to Samarkand from 1403-1406, the city was pretty much always in a constant state of construction; mosques and madrasahs went up one day only to be pulled down when the great ruler found fault with them the next. As a result, Samarkand is home to some of the most incredible edifices in Central Asia; there’s the Bibi Khanuym, a mosque that, before an 1897 earthquake, boasted 450 marble columns, apparently built with the help of some 95 elephants that Timur brought back from Hindustan; the Registan, an ancient public square, flanked by three ornate madrasahs; and the Gur-i-Amir, Timur’s mausoleum, decorated floor-to-ceiling with intricate mosaics and gold. Read Less