Ancient Maracanda was a Sogdian trading city when Alexander the Great took it in 329 BCE. For centuries its merchants carried silk, paper and spices between China, India and Persia.
Genghis Khan's army destroyed it in 1220, but in 1370 Amir Timur made Samarkand his capital and brought craftsmen from every land he conquered to rebuild it.
His grandson Ulugh Beg, an astronomer-king, built a madrasa on the Registan and an observatory whose star tables were the most accurate of their age.
