THE MAUSOLEUM OF ZENGHI ATA

About kilometres south of Tashkent. Take bus 153 at the hippodrome. The mausoleum of Zenghi Ata and that of his wife Ambar Bibi were erected in the th century on the order of Timur. One legend tells the story of this construction: between two conquests, Timur decided to build a mausoleum to the revered Sufi Akhmed Yasavi, near the village of Turkestan in the present Kazakhstan. But the construction didn't progress because every morning the work of the day was destroyed. The craftsmen then decided to watch to see who démolissait their work. In this way, once the night fell, they saw an immense and very powerful bull swinging on the walls and turning them into his passage. Tamerlane wanted to see with his own eyes, but while he was watching before the building of the mausoleum, he heard the voice of Yasavi telling him to raise a mausoleum for his uncle Zenghi Ata, also the Sufi priest and patron saint of the shepherds, before building his own. The body of this man was still needed… The voice of Yasavi indicated how to proceed: You had to follow a white camel until it was down for the seventh time. From sunrise, the servants of Timur went to the market and followed a white camel up to the outskirts of Tashkent, where a mausoleum was built in Preston Khodja, nicknamed Zenghi Ata, the «black father», because of his mate skin. This high place of Islam was recently renovated and is no longer a romantic ruin that was known to him in the 1980 s. The pilgrims are enthusiastic and many, the quiet tourists. The original mausoleum dates back to the th century. Architecture, decorations and mosaics are typical of the era. La was added in the th century and the mosque in the th century. Minaret dates from the beginning of the last century. The mausoleum of Ambar Bibi is located in the cemetery next to the mausoleum of Zenghi Ata. There are many women to get there, doing three times the tower of the building while embracing the walls. They are covered with prayers, vows, or simple words with pens from the brick to the extreme height to which an arm can be attached. The pèlerines will then choose a tree in the graveyard to which they attach small pieces of cloth so that the wind takes their prayers.