Crypt of Timur

History

According to the sources, Timur ordered a crypt for himself a few dozen paces from his son Jahangir’s mausoleum, with work starting around the 1390s. But in February 1405 he died at Otrar on campaign against China, and his body was taken to Samarkand and laid in the Gur-e Amir, the mausoleum of his grandson Muhammad Sultan. The traditional explanation is that the mountain passes to Shahrisabz were blocked by winter snow.

Archaeologists examined the crypt in the 20th century and, reading the inscriptions on its walls, concluded that it was designed for a single burial. Remains of unidentified people are said to have been found in the sarcophagus; whose they were is still unknown.

The crypt lies about 35 m east of the remains of the Jahangir Mausoleum’s gatehouse. Yahya Gulyamov attempted to read its inscriptions in the 1930s, and Mikhail Masson and Galina Pugachenkova studied them fully in the 1940s.

What you see

A narrow staircase leads down into a small cruciform limestone chamber, almost filled by a monolithic marble sarcophagus. The arches and walls carry Quranic verses and the “beautiful names of God” in various styles of thuluth script. The austere, unadorned space is a striking contrast to the splendour of Ak-Saray and invites reflection.