The Sogdian city Samarkand (meaning Stone Town as well), called Marakand by Alexander the Great, destroyed by Genghis Khan (13th century) and rebuilt by the Temurids (Tamerlane). The wonderful monuments of the Temurid epoch (15th century) that we come to admire nowadays have started to slowly deteriorate from as early as the end of the 16th century, and definitively from the 18th century and have been rebuilt (sometimes starting from small reminders, see photos) by the Russians (in the early 20th century, and then 1967-87). Some qualify it “inappropriate restoration work” but there is no doubt that it is a “pleasure for the eye”.
Shah-i-Zinda (“the living king”) is a necropolis that has been built continuously from earlier than the 11th until the 19th century. As the old location of the city has been a bit further away, on the hill (called Afrosiob) rather than down in the valley, this necropolis was well outside the city when its construction started. Whereas, the Ulugh Beg observatory from the 15th century (a really interesting personality, see here ) is on the hill, not far from the ancient city, already destroyed at the time of the construction of the observatory.
A somewhat open question is whether Samarkand is Tajik or Uzbek, at least it is still somehow claimed by Tajikistan. A fact is that Tajik are the major ethnic group of the city, another that Uzbek took control over the city as early as in the 16th century, and today it is Uzbek ... with little chance of change in any near future.
Samarkand is of course an awfully touristic place, and everything is prepared for welcoming tourists. But we are lucky, during the hot summer period, they are less abundant, and we can visit all the monuments with ease. We encounter the greatest tourist concentration in the restaurants around the Registan. Also Silk Road bikers on their way from Europe to China are not a rare sight ...