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Meros Paper Mill, Konigil

Workshop founded in 1996 by Zarif and Islom Mukhtorov that revived Samarkand's mulberry-bark paper, in Konigil village about 5 km from the Registan.

CraftsFounded 1996

About the place

Paper has been made in Samarkand since the 8th century, and the city's paper was once prized across the Islamic world. The craft had died out when the brothers Zarif and Islom Mukhtorov founded the Meros workshop in 1996 to revive it, making paper from the inner bark of young mulberry branches.

The workshop sits by a stream in Konigil village, about five kilometres east of the Registan, and a water-driven mill pounds the fibres as in the past. You can follow every step from stripping the bark to polishing the sheets, and buy paper, notebooks and dolls. Konigil has been a tourist village since 2020; allow about ninety minutes.

Why go

  • Paper from mulberry bark
  • Water-driven mill
  • Revived in 1996

Nearby

  • Chupan-Ata Hill and ShrineNature

    2 km away

    Chupan-Ata Hill and Shrine

    The highest point of Samarkand, a hill on the north-east edge of the city with a 15th-century shrine on top and wide views over town.

  • Ulugh Beg ObservatoryArchaeology

    3 km awayUNESCO World Heritage

    Ulugh Beg Observatory

    The remains of the fifteenth-century observatory where Ulugh Beg and his scholars compiled a star catalogue, with a small museum beside it.

  • Ulugh Beg Monument, SamarkandEnsembles

    3 km away

    Ulugh Beg Monument, Samarkand

    A 2010 statue of the astronomer-ruler Ulugh Beg in front of the memorial museum at his observatory, set against a panel of the starry sky.

  • Attractions

    3 km away

    Eternal City (Boqiy Shahar)

    Reconstructed old town of over 10 ha at the Silk Road Samarkand resort, opened in 2022, with more than 50 craft workshops and a rotating amphitheatre.