Shakhrisabz

Timur was born near Shakhrisabz and built there on a scale meant to eclipse anything else, and the surviving fragment of the Ak-Saray palace gives the measure of it: two brick piers of the entrance portal standing around forty metres high, with the arch between them long gone and the span it once covered still visible in the ruins. The Dorut Tilovat and Dorus Saodat complexes hold family tombs, including a crypt made for Timur himself.

What you actually see

• The Ak-Saray portal - two brick piers around forty metres high from the palace gate.
• The Dorus Saodat - the burial complex with the crypt made for Timur.
• The Dorut Tilovat - the mosque and tombs of the Kok Gumbaz group.
• The pass road - the drive over the Takhtakaracha from Samarkand.

When to go

April to June and September to October are the comfortable months. The pass can close in winter snow. Summer heat is severe.

Honest expectations

Large-scale demolition around the monuments in 2015 and 2016 to create a park led UNESCO to place the site on its list of World Heritage in danger, and the setting is now an open plaza rather than a town. The drive over the pass is winding. Summer heat is severe with little shade.

Nearby

Samarkand is north over the pass, and Karshi is south.