Musalla Complex and Minarets

Timurid-era minarets, all that remains of a vast 15th-century complex

The Musalla complex was the great architectural achievement of Queen Gawhar Shad, wife of the Timurid ruler Shah Rukh, built in the 15th century. It comprised a congregational mosque, a madrassa, and a mausoleum, all decorated in the extraordinary tilework of the Timurid school. What remains today is a fragment of that glory: two minarets of the original six, still covered in brilliant mosaic faience, and the mausoleum of Gawhar Shad herself.

The minarets lean at alarming angles — subsidence and earthquake damage — but the tilework remains visible, cobalt and turquoise geometric patterns on a background of pale stone. The mausoleum interior, when accessible, contains some of the finest Timurid stucco work in existence. The site is northwest of the old city, a short drive from the citadel.

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A story
In 1885, a British officer ordered five of the Musalla's six minarets demolished to improve artillery fields of fire against a possible Russian advance. The art historian Robert Byron, visiting in 1933, described the surviving minarets as so beautiful that the act of destruction was one of the great cultural crimes of the 19th century.