General View of the Shah-i Zindah Mosque (Evening Photo). Samarkand

1905
This remarkable view, taken in the light of the setting sun, shows the middle group of mausolea in the Shah-i Zindah necropolis, located at the outskirts of Samarkand. Built on an ancient burial ground, Shah-i Zindah (Persian for “living king”) is revered as a memorial to Kusam-ibn-Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad. From left to right are seen the Octagonal Mausoleum, the Shirin Bika Aga Mausoleum, the Shadi Mulk Aga Mausoleum, the Emir Zade Mausoleum, and the double domes of the Kazy-Zade Rumi Mausoleum, built in 1437 by Ulugh Beg, the astronomer king and grandson of Tamerlane (Timur). The photograph shows remnants of the ceramic tile decoration (including patterned script), much of which has since been restored. In the background are the snow-covered peaks of the Turkestan Range to the southeast. The image is by Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944), who used a special color photography process to create a visual record of the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. Some of Prokudin-Gorskii’s photographs date from about 1905, but the bulk of his work is from between 1909 and 1915, when, with the support of Tsar Nicholas II and the Ministry of Transportation, he undertook extended trips through many different parts of the empire. In 1911 he made two trips to an area of Central Asia then known as Turkestan (present-day Uzbekistan and neighboring states), where he photographed monuments of Islamic art.

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Filename: 2497.jpg
Copyright: acku Afghanistan
Image Size: 1800x1685 / 538.6KB; 1905 Uzbekistan Samarqand Samarkand Shah-i-Zindah Mosque Islamic Architecture Domes Mountains Mausoleum Shirin Bika Aga Shadi Mulk Aga Emir Zade Kazy-Zade Rumi Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Photo WDL 010027
Contained in galleries: UZBEKISTAN

1905<br />
This remarkable view, taken in the light of the setting sun, shows the middle group of mausolea in the Shah-i Zindah necropolis, located at the outskirts of Samarkand. Built on an ancient burial ground, Shah-i Zindah (Persian for “living king”) is revered as a memorial to Kusam-ibn-Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad. From left to right are seen the Octagonal Mausoleum, the Shirin Bika Aga Mausoleum, the Shadi Mulk Aga Mausoleum, the Emir Zade Mausoleum, and the double domes of the Kazy-Zade Rumi Mausoleum, built in 1437 by Ulugh Beg, the astronomer king and grandson of Tamerlane (Timur). The photograph shows remnants of the ceramic tile decoration (including patterned script), much of which has since been restored. In the background are the snow-covered peaks of the Turkestan Range to the southeast. The image is by Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944), who used a special color photography process to create a visual record of the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. Some of Prokudin-Gorskii’s photographs date from about 1905, but the bulk of his work is from between 1909 and 1915, when, with the support of Tsar Nicholas II and the Ministry of Transportation, he undertook extended trips through many different parts of the empire. In 1911 he made two trips to an area of Central Asia then known as Turkestan (present-day Uzbekistan and neighboring states), where he photographed monuments of Islamic art.