AK-SARAI, THE WHITE PALACE

Ak means "white" but understood as "noble," because white was in no way the colour of Tamerlane palace whose walls were covered with azur azure and dark blue. The visitor's first contact with this huge square, set up in the park in the late 1990 s, is disappointing. There is not much of the sumptuous palace that can be imagined by the story of Clavijo. The ruins of the portal are immense - 30 m - and still covered with majolica tiles, but the 22 m high vault has not resisted the earthly attraction. The damage are old since it was the Emir of Bukhara who destroyed the building in the th century: the palace, whose construction lasted more than a quarter of a century, made it shadow… there is, of course, a legend about the architect of this palace: in the first version, once the palace finished, Timur asks the architect if he is able to build an even more beautiful palace, the spavento answers yes, and is immediately thrown off the high walls; in the second version, the architect was supposed to enter at the foot of the ark, the following sentence: «The Sultan is the shadow of Allah», but on one side he missed him, which gave: " The Sultan is the shadow "! The architect invoquer the Koran which bans the decorative symmetry, you guess… In each turn, a spiral staircase climbs at the top where the view is splendid on the city and the snow-capped summits in the south.

In 2007, the ruins of the palace were residences from a grid that you only cross with 1 500 hospitals (0,8 € approx.), but you can just as easily look at the grid. On the other hand, you will have to enter the enclosure if you want to climb the doors of the palace (1 500 supplémentaires extra) to enjoy the beautiful panorama of the city and its surroundings.