Samarkand - the Ak-Saray Mausoleum

In Samarkand, on the opposite side beside the Mausoleum of Gur Emir is the Mausoleum of Ak-Saray, which is considered to be the burial place of the male representatives of the Temurid family in the second half of the XVth century. The half-destroyed building has kept a compositional core – the cruciform hall above an octagonal crypt.

The Mausoleum is famous for the monumental painting of the interior, which completely covered it. It is one of the best examples of the organic fusion of construction and architectural plasticity of the dome on the intersecting arches and the mesh-like sails.

The walls and ceilings of the ceiling were covered with gilded relief painting “kundal” with the stylised ornament on a blue background. The interior of the hall was surrounded by a mosaic panel with an elegant pattern of flower vases against a background of a diagonal lattice of blue and white tiles.

The slab of the crypt was covered with grey marble. The restoration work to restore the mausoleum is in progress. There is a legend about the mausoleum of Ak-Saray in Samarkand, which says that a decapitated man is buried in the niche that was built near the eastern wall. According to one of the versions it is the burial place of Ullugbek’s son Abdullatif, who was executed after his father’s fall.