EnsemblesUnder 1 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.
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.
ArchaeologyUNESCO World Heritage15th centuryAbout 1 hour to see
About the place
Ulugh Beg, Timur's grandson and ruler of Samarkand, was a working astronomer. On a hill north-east of the city he built a large round observatory, where he and his scholars measured the positions of stars and the length of the year.
After his death the building was destroyed and forgotten. Archaeologists found its site in the early twentieth century, and the surviving part is the curved trench of a huge meridian arc cut into the rock.
A small museum next to the site tells the story of Ulugh Beg and his astronomical tables, which were later studied in Europe.
Sources (1)
- 1.Wikidata
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