Amir Timur Museum (State Museum of Timurid History), Tashkent

The museum was opened in 1996 to mark the 660th anniversary of Timur’s birth, at a time when independent Uzbekistan was making him its national hero. Timur (1336–1405), known in Europe as Tamerlane, built an empire stretching from Anatolia to India with Samarkand as its capital. In the Soviet period he was presented mainly as a destructive conqueror; after independence he was celebrated as a statesman, lawgiver and patron of science and art.

The building itself was designed to impress. It is a round structure with a ribbed blue dome, inspired by the Timurid domes of Gur-Emir and Bibi-Khanym in Samarkand, surrounded by columns. Inside, the central hall is decorated with gilding, a huge crystal chandelier and a large mural showing Timur and scenes from his life and times. The effect is opulent, even theatrical.

The exhibits are arranged on several floors around the central hall:

• Timur’s life and campaigns: maps of his conquests, weapons and armour, and scenes of his court.
• Timurid manuscripts and art: copies and originals of manuscripts, miniatures and documents from the Timurid era, including copies of the letters Timur exchanged with European rulers such as Charles VI of France.
• Science: exhibits on Ulugbek, Timur’s grandson and astronomer, with models of his observatory and his famous star catalogue; see Ulugbek’s observatory in Samarkand.
• Architecture: models and photographs of the great Timurid buildings of Samarkand, Shakhrisabz, Herat and Bukhara.
• Later Timurids: including Babur, founder of the Mughal dynasty of India, born in Andijan in the Fergana Valley, and the poet Alisher Navoi.
• Coins, ceramics, jewellery and clothing from the period.

Some of the most precious items are copies, but the museum gives a clear and attractive overview of the Timurid age.

If you are travelling to Samarkand and Shakhrisabz, the museum is a good introduction to the man whose buildings you will see there: the Registan, Bibi-Khanym, Shah-i-Zinda, Gur-Emir and the ruins of Ak-Saray. It also helps to understand why Timur matters so much in modern Uzbekistan, from statues and street names to school books. The building’s interior is worth seeing in itself.

Timur was born in 1336 near Kesh, today’s Shakhrisabz, into a Turkic-Mongol tribe of the Chagatai khanate. A wound in his youth left him lame, which earned him the Persian nickname Timur-i lang, “Timur the Lame”, the origin of the European name Tamerlane. Through alliances and war he became master of Transoxiana by 1370 and spent the next 35 years on campaigns that reached Delhi, Baghdad, Damascus, Moscow’s borderlands and Ankara, where he defeated the Ottoman sultan Bayezid in 1402.

His conquests were brutal, and whole cities were destroyed. At the same time, he brought craftsmen, scholars and artists from conquered lands to Samarkand and made it one of the most splendid cities of its age. He died in 1405 while preparing a campaign against China and was buried in the Gur-Emir. His descendants ruled Central Asia and Iran for another century, and, through Babur, India for more than three.

Location: on the edge of Amir Timur Square, in the centre of Tashkent.

Metro: Amir Temur Hiyoboni station, a few minutes’ walk. See the Tashkent metro.

Tickets: an entrance fee; photography may cost extra; guided tours in English may be available.

Opening hours: usually closed one day a week; check before you go.

Time needed: about an hour.

Combine with: Amir Timur Square and the equestrian statue of Timur outside, Broadway, the Navoi Theatre and the State Museum of History.