Samarkand in two days, and a day in Shahrisabz

The Registan is the centre, and most sights are within 2 km

Samarkand’s old city is compact. Use the Registan as your fixed point: Gur-e-Amir is 1.2 km to the south-west, the Bibi-Khanym Mosque 1 km to the north-east, the Siyob Bazaar (also written Siab) 300 m beyond the mosque, and Shah-i-Zinda 850 m on from the bazaar. Distances marked as ours on this page come from OpenStreetMap routing on 27 September 2026, without traffic.

That gives three walking groups. The first is the Registan with Gur-e-Amir and the Rukhobod mausoleum on Oqsaroy Street. The second is Bibi-Khanym with the bazaar and Shah-i-Zinda. The third, farther north-east, is the Afrosiyab Museum on the ancient city site and the Ulugh Beg Observatory beyond it. That pair is 3–4.5 km on foot from the Registan, so take a taxi: 6–7 km by road, about 10 minutes.

Three places lie well outside the centre: the railway station, 6 km north-west by road; the airport, 6 km north; and the Eternal City in Konigil, 10 km east. Save the entrance pin for your hotel and for each sight while you have Wi-Fi: the gate is not always where the map label sits.

Tickets and opening hours for the main sights in 2026

Each site sells its own ticket. The Registan has its own e-ticket service, tickets.registon.uz. The Samarkand museum-reserve sells Gur-e-Amir, the Observatory, the Afrosiyab Museum and the Bibi-Khanym Mausoleum one by one on iticket.uz, with a lower price for foreign children.

The Registan is three madrasahs around a square: Ulugh Beg’s (1417–1420), Sher-Dor opposite it (1619–1636, with animals and a sun on its portal) and Tilla-Kori (1646/47–1659/60). Two centuries separate the first from the other two, so give each building its own time. The e-ticket covers one entry on the date you choose, for up to 20 people. A daytime visit and a return inside after dark are two tickets.

The square stays open until midnight from 20 February to 20 November and closes at 20:00 in winter. The directorate’s notice of 9 September 2026 lists a music show on the square every day at 21:00. The evening light-and-sound panorama and the 3D laser show were stopped in November 2025 for equipment repairs, and the September notice does not mention them.

Gur-e-Amir, the mausoleum of Timur’s dynasty, was begun by Timur in 1403 and finished under his grandson Ulugh Beg, who added the gallery on its east side in 1424. Timur’s tombstone is a block of dark nephrite. The Rukhobod mausoleum, associated with Burhoniddin Sogharji, stands on the same street, Oqsaroy: an outside look costs nothing and adds no transfer.

Shah-i-Zinda is a lane of mausoleums climbing a stairway, a place of pilgrimage linked to Qusam ibn Abbas. It has three parts; the Shodi Mulk Oqo mausoleum dates from 1372. Pick a few facades and compare the carved tilework, the lettering round the doors and how the decoration changes from building to building. The Vaqf charitable foundation runs it and gave its hours as 08:00–19:00 in March 2025; it publishes no ticket price. People come here to pray: keep your voice down, keep doorways clear and dress as you would for a mosque (what to wear).

Bibi-Khanym, Timur’s Friday mosque, went up on his orders in 1399–1404: an entrance portal, the main mosque and two smaller mosques around a courtyard. The mausoleum of his wife stands on its east side. The Siyob Bazaar next door sells dried fruit, nuts, sweets, Samarkand bread and halva, and stays open until midnight.

Pick one of the two museums. The Afrosiyab Museum, on the ancient city site, opened in 1970 and has 11 halls on two floors. Its centrepiece is the 7th-century wall paintings from the palace of the Sogdian ruler Varkhuman; one scene shows envoys from the Korean kingdom of Koguryo. In a taxi app, search for the museum itself: the ancient site and the museum entrance are different places. The Ulugh Beg Observatory (1428–1429) was a three-storey drum 30.4 m high around a quadrant with a 40.2 m radius, its southern end set into the ground. Ulugh Beg’s star catalogue lists 1,018 stars.

The Eternal City (Boqiy Shahar) is a 17-hectare recreation of an old town in the Silk Road Samarkand complex, by the Rowing Canal in Konigil. The artist Bobur Ismoilov designed its streets in the styles of eight regions, from Samarkand and Bukhara to Khorezm and Karakalpakstan. It has more than 50 workshops, galleries and schools, at least four restaurants, and classes in plov, paper-making and ceramics. Its official page gives no hours or entry price.

Two full days: the plan, the walks and the ticket bill

Two full days need three nights: arrive the evening before and leave the morning after. Two nights with an afternoon arrival and a morning train give you one full day. In that case keep the Registan, add Gur-e-Amir or Shah-i-Zinda, and save Bibi-Khanym and the bazaar for a spare half-day.

Day one costs 175,000 som in tickets per foreign adult. Day two costs 75,000–80,000 som for the museum and 50,000 for the Bibi-Khanym Mausoleum if you go in; Shah-i-Zinda and the mosque publish no prices, so carry som in cash.

In July and August, see the open-air sights in the morning, rest at midday and drop the museum before you drop the rest. A taxi saves the walk between sights, not the steps inside them. Month-by-month weather: when to go.

For a slower pace, end day two after Bibi-Khanym and lunch, or add a night. With Shahrisabz or Urgut, Samarkand fills three days; our itineraries show where those nights fit in a 7-, 10- or 14-day trip.

Trains in and out, the station and the airport

The Afrosiyob high-speed train is the usual way in: five departures on a weekday from Tashkent Central (Toshkent Markaziy), the fastest taking 2 h 13 min. Seats go early. On 27 September no Afrosiyob seats from Tashkent to Samarkand were left for Wednesday 7 October. Sales open 60 days before departure at 10:00 Tashkent time. Full timetable: Tashkent to Samarkand by train; buying tickets: Afrosiyob tickets.

For Bukhara, besides the three Afrosiyobs, the Tashkent–Khiva Jaloliddin Manguberdi leaves Samarkand at 09:23 and reaches Bukhara at 10:54. Stations and transfers at the Bukhara end: Samarkand to Bukhara.

Samarkand station is 6 km north-west of the Registan by road, about 8 minutes by car without traffic. Give a pickup driver the train number and date, and treat the ride from the station as a separate leg of the day.

The airport is 6 km north of the Registan. City buses 256 and M1 link it with the central bus station every 15 minutes from 06:00 to 21:00; the stop is outside the arrivals exit, and you pay the driver. Only buses and taxis are allowed to stop at the terminal to drop off or pick up, and a stay there over 15 minutes costs 50,000 som an hour.

East, the road crosses into Tajikistan at Jartepa for Penjikent and on to Dushanbe. South, it runs through Shahrisabz to Termez.

Where to stay: choose the area by the walks you plan

Stay within 1.2 km of the Registan and you can walk to every sight except the two museums. The table compares areas by distance, not by hotel.

• Ask the hotel for its entrance pin: the door can open onto a different street from the map label.
• Check luggage storage, check-in and check-out before you plan sightseeing on an arrival or departure day.
• If you need a lift, few steps or air-conditioning, ask about the room itself; an area name tells you nothing about them.
• Registration rules for foreign guests: visa and registration.

Plov, nokhat shurak and the streets that stay open late

Uzbek plov (palov) has been on UNESCO’s list of intangible heritage since 2016, by a decision of 1 December taken at the committee’s meeting in Ethiopia. Samarkand plov is drier than the Tashkent version, with separate grains of rice and a strong meat flavour. Try also nokhat shurak (chickpeas and mutton on the bone, slow-cooked for hours), “mulyon” manty, halisa (wheat or barley simmered with meat in a cauldron) and samsa from the tandoor.

In the Siyob Bazaar, find out if a price is per piece, per packet or per kilo before you agree. Late at night, Orzu Mahmudov Street runs round the clock with 20 places to eat, and the 400-metre Pub Street, on the site of an 1885 brewery, has 12 more with room for about 1,500 guests.

Cards, cash machines and exchange: money in Uzbekistan.

Shahrisabz: Timur’s home town as a day trip

Shahrisabz (also spelled Shakhrisabz), Timur’s birthplace, is 87 km south of the Registan over the Takhtakaracha pass: about 2 hours each way by car. On Sundays an Afrosiyob goes round the mountains through Karshi instead. You go for three Timurid sites, which take 3–4 hours with lunch.

Ak-Saray, Timur’s palace of 1380–1404: only the ruined gateway, its two side towers and part of the foundations survive, but the arch is 22.5 m wide and 40 m high, and the gateway once rose more than 50 m. Dorus Saodat (1379–1380): the mausoleum of Timur’s son Jahangir, known locally as Hazrati Imom, and the underground crypt built for Timur himself, with its stone coffin. Dorut Tilovat: Shamsiddin Kulol’s mausoleum, the Kok Gumbaz Friday mosque of 1435, whose portal names Ulugh Beg as its builder, and the Gumbazi Sayidon family tomb of 1437–1438.

Walk it north to south: Ak-Saray → Chubin madrasa, home of the town’s Amir Temur museum since 1996 (560 m) → the Chorsu, a 21 × 21 m domed market hall (590 m) → Dorus Saodat (680 m) → Dorut Tilovat (370 m), about 2.2 km in all. The museum-reserve opens every site 08:00–17:00 daily and publishes no ticket prices. Carry som in cash and ask at the first desk; its main number is +998 99 748 02 22.

UNESCO inscribed the historic centre in 2000 and has kept it on the List of World Heritage in Danger since 2016, after buildings in the medieval quarters were demolished and new hotels went up; expect wide new open spaces between the monuments. In July 2025 the World Heritage Committee agreed that Uzbekistan can renominate it as four Timurid monuments, with the dossier due by 1 February 2029.

The Sunday train leaves you 5 h 12 min in town. It stops at the station mapped as Kitob, 4.4 km north of Ak-Saray, so book a pickup for 11:12 and a car back in time for 16:24. Buy both directions at once: on 27 September the 4 October return had 6 seats left, against 87 on the way out. The service began on 27 March 2026 with Friday, Saturday and Sunday trains; the autumn timetable is Sundays only, and the last Sunday on sale on 27 September was 22 November. From Tashkent the same day lasts about 14.5 hours, more than 9 of them on the train, so sleep in Samarkand if you can.

On the road, the Takhtakaracha pass is the risk. Snow closed it in January 2024 (reopened at 15:00 on 29 January), on 15 December 2024 (10:30–12:40) and overnight from 21:30 on 16 January 2026; on 6 November 2024 a falling rock killed three people at km 1,137. Since 26 March 2025, buses and minibuses with more than 8 passenger seats and lorries over 12 tonnes are barred from km 1,135–1,145, so larger groups go round through Karshi, about 270 km. Before you set off, agree one price for the car, how long the driver waits in Shahrisabz and which stops on the pass are included. We would go in spring or autumn, when the pass is normally clear and a day outdoors is easier than in summer heat. From late November to March, ask your driver the evening before if the pass is open, and keep a fallback: the Karshi road or, on a Sunday, the train.

The M-39 continues about 290 km south from Shahrisabz to Termez.

Day trips: Urgut, Penjikent and the road to Bukhara

Urgut is 40 km south-east of the Registan, about 45 minutes by car. Its Chor-Chinor grove holds about fifty plane trees said to be a thousand years old, with trunks up to 16 m round. Under one of them is a natural cave, which you enter only with the caretaker’s permission, and at the bottom of the grove a spring with goldfish. Urgut’s weavers make carpets with dyes from flowers and roots. Pair the grove with the bazaar, and ask your driver which day the trading is busiest.

Penjikent, over the Tajik border, has two UNESCO listings: Sarazm, a settlement of the 4th–3rd millennium BCE beside the road from the border, and the ruins of Sogdian Penjikent. The Jartepa post is 42 km from the Registan. Uzbek Customs classes it as a bilateral post, normally for Uzbek and Tajik citizens, so read the passport rules on our Penjikent page before you plan the day. A single-entry Uzbek e-visa ends when you leave.

On the way to Bukhara, a night in a yurt camp by Lake Aydarkul breaks the journey: the Nuratau trip.

Six things that go wrong in Samarkand

• Sold-out trains. On 27 September no Afrosiyob seats from Tashkent to Samarkand were left for 7 October. Sales open 60 days ahead at 10:00; buy as soon as your dates are fixed.
• One entry per Registan ticket. The e-ticket (100,000 som for a foreign adult) covers one visit on one date: going back inside for the evening means a second ticket.
• Winter hours. From 20 November to 20 February the Registan closes at 20:00, not at midnight.
• No published prices at Shah-i-Zinda, the Bibi-Khanym Mosque or in Shahrisabz. Carry som in cash.
• The Shahrisabz return train fills first. It runs on Sundays only, and on 27 September the 4 October return had 6 seats left. Buy both legs together.
• Snow and size limits on the pass. Snow shuts the Takhtakaracha road for hours (three closures in the last three winters), and vehicles with more than 8 passenger seats are barred, which sends groups round through Karshi, about 270 km.

Common questions