Known as "The Gem of the East" and "The Land of Scientists," Samarkand is the second-largest city in Uzbekistan and one of the most important trading centers on the Silk Road. It was founded in 500 B.C., about the same time as Rome, and when Spanish traveler Ruy Gonzales de Clavigo arrived there in 1400, he noted: "A traveler who approaches the city sees only a mountainous height of trees and the houses embowered among them remain invisible." He also found among its well-tended gardens turquoise-domed mosques, tiled madrassas (Islamic academies), and elaborate mausolea, known as "streets of the dead," among which huge caravans unloaded... More >>>