Between the Registan, Bibi-Khanym, and Shah-i-Zinda lies the part of Samarkand that the monument-restoration work left almost untouched — a warren of narrow lanes lined with low mud-brick houses, the older ones decorated with carved wooden doors. This is the historic Tajik-speaking quarter, where the older mahalla life of the city has persisted: bread ovens fired up in courtyards, neighbours sitting out on platform divans, kids playing in the dust.
You can wander freely. The doors are sometimes ajar onto courtyards full of flowers and trellised vines. Locals are generally friendly to a polite passer-by, and if you spend an hour walking the area between the monuments rather than taxiing between them, you will see a Samarkand that the standard itinerary does not show.