Everyone knows that the East is rich in its outstanding rulers, scientists, philosophers and researchers. The development of sciences was welcomed here from time to time, to which the Great Silk Road contributed a lot.
One of the clearest evidence of this is the construction of the observatory by the ruler of Samarkand Muhammad Taragay Ulugbek, the grandson of the world-famous Temirlan, who turned this city into the largest center of science and culture. From an early age, Ulugbek was interested in mathematics and together with Temirlan went to Sultania, to Marat where he saw the Maragin Observatory, which could give an impetus to encouraging interest from the future king to astronomy. The observatory was built in the vicinity of Samarkand on the hill Kukhak in the XV century.
For his research in astronomy, he erected a huge observatory, unfortunately, not preserved to this day. But in the ancient chronicles there are many references to it, with the help of which one can imagine its appearance: a three-storey building of cylindrical shape with a diameter of not less than 46, and a height of 30 meters, decorated with sparkling tiles. It contained the main instruments with which the scientist, with astounding accuracy at that time, calculated the coordinates of stars and other celestial bodies — a giant quadrant, an azimuth circle, and a sundial.
Near the place of the observatory a majestic museum named after Ulugbek is now built, where you can see photos of the excavations, frescoes, ancient artifacts, tools and unique passages from the Astronomical Tables.
