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Home » Shakhrisabz town constructions of architecture. Architectural history of the town of Kesh.

History Ak-Saray Palace.

Tours on architectural monuments Tamerlan in history Shakhrisabz.

Tamerlane's vast residence covered an area the size of an olympic stadium, took а quarter of а century (1380 - 1405) to build, and was still not finished when he died. In the construction of the Ak-Saray participated as local craftsmen and masters from the captives of Khorezm and Azerbaijan.
From the grand palace of Tamerlane remained only strong foundations portal, flanked by corner towers, part of the portal arch and arch zaportalnoy design. The main entrance once led to extensive, with a pool in the middle of the yard, circled the two floors of rich mansions and rooms with three domes on the axes.
Arch, the facade and tower portal covering ornamental sets of glazed bricks (large Kufic inscriptions and girihi) of majolica tiles and mosaics kashin typesetting. The entire decoration of the palace of striking beauty delights rich colorful palette and an endless variety of ornaments: plant, geometric, epigraphic bands soultz letters with multi-row arrangement of letters plexus.
During the excavation in front of the portal is found curly vymostka brick and glazed tiles. The Spanish envoy Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo got the best look at it of any European, as he did of so much that Tamerlane built. Не judged the main courtyard to be 300 paces wide, and beyond it he entered 'а great reception hall where the walls аге panelled with gold and blue tiles, and the ceiling is entirely of gold work'.
In the smaller rooms and private apartments all was so marvellously wrought that even the craftsmen of Paris would hold that which is done here to be of very fine workmanship. Only part of the main entrance arch still stands, but this is awesome enough.
Before the arch itself collapsed it was nearly 50 m high and spanned 22 т, dwarfing even that of Bibi Khanym in Samaюrkand. Its sides аrе 38 m high and covered in acres-it seems-of magnificent tile work. Some gold leaf still clings to the glaze out of sight and robbers' reach and at the top of the right hand pillar (looking south).
The black-rimmed diamond-shaped tiles beside the blue and green corner spirals were а signature of imported Azerbaijani craftsmen. Horizontal Arabic inscriptions near the bottom of each side of the arch were supposed to read, 'the Sultan is а shadow of Allah', but on the right hand side the craftsman started too big and only managed to fit in, 'The Sultan is а shadow,' for which he was severely punished.
It is also said that the architect was thrown off the job for apparent idleness. In fact, when he hung а chain from the top of а half-built section of the arch and then waited а year, he had subsidence in mind. The chain sank imperceptibly towards the ground.
When it stopped the architect declared it was safe to go on building, and was reinstated. The great courtyard, paved in white stone, stretched south from this arch across the modern саг park to the four-storey palace proper where there is now а war memorial.

Authority:
« Religious and spiritual monuments of the Central Asia ». The author of M. Khashimov. Publishing house " Saga ", 2001. Alexey Arapov. Samarkand. Masterpieces of Central Asia. Tashkent, San’at. 2004.