fa, سمرقند , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = , image_caption =

Clockwise from the top:
Registan square, Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, view inside Shah-i-Zinda, Sher-Dor Madrasah in Registan, Timur's Mausoleum Gur-e-Amir.

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Vilayat A vilayet ( ota, , "province"), also known by various other names, was a first-order administrative division of the later Ottoman Empire. It was introduced in the Vilayet Law of 21 January 1867, part of the Tanzimat reform movement initiated b ...

, subdivision_name1 = Samarkand Vilayat , subdivision_type2 = , subdivision_name2 = , subdivision_type3 = , subdivision_name3 = , established_title = Settled , established_date = 8th century BCE , founder = , seat_type = , seat = , government_footnotes = , government_type = City Administration , governing_body = Hakim (Mayor) , leader_party = Furqat Rahimov , leader_title = , unit_pref = Metric , area_footnotes = , area_urban_footnotes = , area_rural_footnotes = , area_metro_footnotes = , area_magnitude = , area_note = , area_water_percent = , area_rank = , area_blank1_title = , area_blank2_title = , area_total_km2 = 120 , area_land_km2 = , area_water_km2 = , area_urban_km2 = , area_rural_km2 = , area_metro_km2 = , area_blank1_km2 = , area_blank2_km2 = , area_total_ha = , area_land_ha = , area_water_ha = , area_urban_ha = , area_rural_ha = , area_metro_ha = , area_blank1_ha = , area_blank2_ha = , elevation_m = 705 , population_as_of = 1 January 2019 , population_footnotes = , population_total = 513,572 , population_density_km2 = auto , population_metro = 950,000 , population_note = , population_demonym = Samarkandian / Samarkandi , timezone1 = , utc_offset1 = +5 , timezone1_DST = , utc_offset1_DST = , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 140100 , area_code_type = , area_code = , iso_code = , website = , module = Samarkand (; uz, Самарқанд, Samarqand, ; tg, Самарқанд; fa, سمرقند; sog, *smā́rkąθ, , ), also known as Samarqand, is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia. There is evidence of human activity in the area of the city from the late

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

Era. Though there is no direct evidence of when Samarkand was founded, several theories propose that it was founded between the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. Prospering from its location on the

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

between

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

and Europe, at times Samarkand was one of the largest cities of Central Asia.Guidebook of history of Samarkand", Most of the inhabitants of this city are native Persian-speakers and speak the Tajik Persian dialect. This city is one of the historical centers of the Tajik people in Central Asia, which in the past was one of the important cities of the great empires of Iran. By the time of the

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest em ...

of Persia, it was the capital of the

Sogdia Sogdia (Sogdian language, Sogdian: ) or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian peoples, Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also ...

satrap A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires. The satrap served as viceroy to the king, though with consid ...

y. The city was conquered by

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

in 329 BCE, when it was known as Markanda, which was rendered in Greek as . The city was ruled by a succession of Iranian and

Turkic Turkic may refer to: * anything related to the country of Turkey * Turkic languages, a language family of at least thirty-five documented languages ** Turkic alphabets (disambiguation) ** Turkish language, the most widely spoken Turkic language * ...

rulers until it was conquered by the Mongols under

Genghis Khan ''Chinggis Khaan'' ͡ʃʰiŋɡɪs xaːŋbr />Mongol script: ''Chinggis Qa(gh)an/ Chinggis Khagan'' , birth_name = Temüjin , successor = Tolui (as regent)Ögedei Khan , spouse = , issue = , house = Borjigin , ...

in 1220. Today, Samarkand is the capital of Samarqand Region and a district-level city, that includes the urban-type settlements Kimyogarlar, Farxod and Xishrav. With 551,700 inhabitants (2021), it is the second-largest city of Uzbekistan. The city is noted as a centre of

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

ic scholarly study and the birthplace of the Timurid Renaissance. In the 14th century, Timur (Tamerlane) made it the capital of his empire and the site of his

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...

, the Gur-e Amir. The Bibi-Khanym Mosque, rebuilt during the Soviet era, remains one of the city's most notable

landmark A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures or f ...

s. Samarkand's Registan square was the city's ancient centre and is bounded by three monumental religious buildings. The city has carefully preserved the traditions of ancient crafts: embroidery, goldwork, silk weaving,

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish ...

engraving, ceramics, wood carving, and wood painting. In 2001, UNESCO added the city to its World Heritage List as ''Samarkand – Crossroads of Cultures.'' Modern Samarkand is divided into two parts: the old city, and the new city, which was developed during the days of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. The old city includes historical monuments, shops, and old private houses; the new city includes administrative buildings along with cultural centres and

educational institution An educational institution is a place where people of different ages gain an education, including preschools, childcare, primary-elementary schools, secondary-high schools, and universities. They provide a large variety of learning environments an ...

s. On September 15–16, 2022, the city hosted the

2022 SCO summit The 2022 SCO summit was the 22nd annual summit of heads of state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation held between 15 and 16 September 2022 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Proceedings As part of the meetings, general secretary of the Chinese C ...

Etymology

The name comes from Sogdian "stone, rock" and "fort, town." In this respect, ''Samarkand'' shares the same meaning as the name of the Uzbek capital Tashkent, with ''tash-'' being the Turkic term for "stone" and ''-kent'' the Turkic analogue of ''kand''.

History

Early history

Along with

Bukhara Bukhara (Uzbek language, Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara ...

, Samarkand is one of the oldest inhabited cities in Central Asia, prospering from its location on the trade route between China and Europe. There is no direct evidence of when it was founded. Researchers at the Institute of Archaeology of Samarkand date the city's founding to the 8th–7th centuries BCE.

Archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

excavations conducted within the city limits (Syob and midtown) as well as suburban areas (Hojamazgil, Sazag'on) unearthed 40,000-year-old evidence of human activity, dating back to the Upper Paleolithic. A group of

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymous ...

(12th–7th millennia BCE) archaeological sites were discovered in the suburbs of Sazag'on-1, Zamichatosh, and Okhalik. The Syob and Darg'om

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface fl ...

s, supplying the city and its suburbs with water, appeared around the 7th–5th centuries BCE (early Iron Age). From its earliest days, Samarkand was one of the main centres of

n civilization. By the time of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia, the city had become the capital of the Sogdian satrapy.

Hellenistic period