Kuksaray (palace)

Kuksaray – the palace of Amir Timur, translated from the Turkic language as Blue Palace. According to some sources, Kuksaray was Amir Timur’s main palace in Samarkand.

The unexcavated remains of the palace ruins are located in the historic center of Samarkand, probably on the eastern part of the Kuksaray site, next to the main building of the Samarkand region administration (a tall 15‑storey building), near a bridge.

The Kuksaray palace was built by Amir Timur after he ascended the throne in 1370. Kuksaray was a four‑storey building of significant dimensions for its time. The palace walls were covered with glazed tiles. The palace itself was situated on a hill. After a short time, another palace – Bustansaroy (“Palace of Flowers”) – was built next to it. The Kuksaray palace was one of Amir Timur’s favourite palaces among the dozens he had around Samarkand. In the autumn of 1404, Amir Timur stopped at Kuksaray for the last time before his campaign against China (the Ming Empire). In November 1497, Babur stayed in the nearby Bustonsaroy. After Emperor Timur’s death, his descendants used the palace.

Until 1868, the Ko‘ktosh throne stone (translated from Turkic as “blue stone”) was located in Timur’s throne room and was later restored. Throughout the 15th‑19th centuries, the Timurid throne in the palace – Ko‘ktosh – was the site of accession ceremonies for Central Asian rulers from the Timurid line to the Manghits. Although the capital of the Emirate of Bukhara was the city of Bukhara, the Uzbek emirs of Bukhara – Haydar, Nasrullo and Muzaffar – performed their coronation ceremonies in Samarkand, at Ko‘ktosh. The last such ceremony took place in 1861 when Emir Muzaffar ascended the throne.

The main buildings of the palace were destroyed during the period of political opposition and crisis in the first half of the 18th century. In the 19th century the Bukhara amirs of the Manghit dynasty partially rebuilt the palace. The palace and its gate views were photographed by the Russian painter Vasiliy Vereshchagin in the Turkestan series.

In 1868, after the eastern part of the Bukhara emirate was deprived of its independence, Samarkand was captured and incorporated into the Russian Empire, the authorities decided to completely destroy the palace. To the present day only the stone of the Ko‘ktosh throne shown in the courtyard of the Goriamir mausoleum has been preserved. The palace itself (like the Bustansaroy palace) was completely destroyed, then covered with soil and remains unexcavated.

The city of Samarkand and its historical, cultural, religious, architectural and archaeological monuments, including the remains of the Ko‘ksaroy palace, have been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List under the name “Samarkand – Crossroads of Cultures”.