Ak-Sarai Palace

Several monumental buildings were erected in Shakhrisabz during the reign of the Temurids. The most magnificent of them was the Ak-Sarai Palace. Its romantic ruins are visible from afar and make an unforgettable impression. Amir Temur planned to turn Shakhrisabz into a second capital, no less luxurious than Samarkand. The construction of the palace began in 1380 and has been going on for more than a quarter of a century. It is known that architects and craftsmen from Khorezm, conquered shortly before, took part in the construction of the palace. There are several legends connected with the history of this grandiose building. According to one of them, gold sand was added to the clay for the first bricks of the royal construction.

The scope of the construction was truly royal. The great emperor spared no expense. He certainly wanted his buildings to be the largest and best in the sublunary world. No wonder the inscription on the colossal portal of the palace read: "If you doubt our strength and power, take a look at our buildings." According to the descriptions of contemporaries and based on archaeological research materials, scientists have recreated the layout and artistic appearance of the Temur Palace. Although Ak-Sarai is translated from Uzbek as "White Palace", however, in the name of the palace it means "noble, aristocratic". First of all, the scale of the building is striking. The front courtyard alone, whose plan was restored, was 250 meters long and 125 meters wide. And the height of the main portal, topped with arched teeth, reached 70 meters – the size of a twenty-story house. The corner towers were at least 80 meters high, and the entrance arch had a span of more than 22 meters.

According to Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, the ambassador of the King of Castile to the court of Temur, the main entrance to the palace led through very high and wide doors, "decorated with gold, azure and tiles of very beautiful workmanship. In the middle above the door was a lion placed in the sun – the coat of arms of the king of Samarkand...". This door led to a formal reception hall. The luxury of the palace's decoration was complemented by the tiled floor slabs, the remains of which were found during archaeological excavations.

The palace served for recreation and entertainment, as well as for the administration of state affairs. On the axis of the courtyard there was a domed room for meetings of the divan – the State Council. It had on two sides small meeting rooms of advisers – tavajibekov and divanbekov. Among the palace buildings there was also a harem, richly decorated and lavishly decorated. In front of him was a shady garden with ponds lined with patterned tiles. One of the reservoirs was intended for sacred fish. The water came through a lead chute from the nearby mountains.

The decor of the Ak-Sarai, which covered the walls and vaults of the palace with a sparkling shell, is still admired. Large geometric ornaments on its facades are made mainly of blue and blue glazed bricks. Against the background of polished bricks, they shimmer and give the whole structure a special flavor and grandeur. The niche of the portal is decorated with elegant carved mosaics and majolica, as well as inscriptions from the Koran in Sult's handwriting. The walls of the palace and the palace square were also decorated with tiled mosaics with a combination of blue, green, yellow and red colors. And the colossal corner tower was encircled by an edifying saying in Kufi's handwriting: "The Sultan is the shadow of Allah." An inscription with the name of the master Muhammad Yusuf Tabrizi and the date of completion of the work – 798 (1395) has been preserved among the decorative cladding.

At the end of the 16th century, Shakhrisabz rebelled against the rule of the Sheibanids. And after the siege of the rebellious city, the Bukhara ruler Abdullahan II ordered the destruction of Ak-Sarai as well as other buildings of the Temurids. In the 60s of the XVIII century, the ruins of Amir Temur's palace turned out to be inside the Urda residence of the Shakhrisabz bey. The Ak-Sarai portal decorated the Urda's main courtyard with a throne room and treasury. On the territory of the former royal gardens and ponds there was a black courtyard "Tashkent" with rooms for nookers, servants and guards. A tupkhona Cannon Yard was placed at the eastern entrance to the Ak-Sarai. To this day, only the huge foundations of the portal vault of the palace have been preserved, but these remnants of former splendor still serve as a symbol of the power of the state of Amir Temur.