Nearby

Samarkand

city in Uzbekistan

39.65416766.959722

we will see

Ulugh Beg Observatory

Uzbekistan
Discovered by Russian archaeologists. Ulugbek, Timur's grandson, was an accomplished astronomer, scientist and architect. The monument is situated in the north-east outskirts of city at the foot Chupan-ata mountain, which in medieval times was called Kukhak. That was three floor round building, decorated by glazed tiles, majolica, mosaic, but it was destroyed. The only thing that was preserved is a part of huge sextant, the lowest part of which was in a deep trench (11 km). Both arcs of this instrument are made of marble with indication of degrees. During the excavation works, remains of other astronomic instruments were found. Even being preserved partially, the observatory of Ulugbek is unique not only for Central Asia, but also for the whole world. The remains of observatory were conserved at the beginning of 1960s. Here was also organized museum, where collecting the unique astronomic information and instruments related to Timurids epoch.