The Ak-Saray, or White Palace, was Timur's summer residence and his most ambitious architectural statement. Construction began in 1380 and continued for 24 years, resulting in a structure of extraordinary scale — the arcaded courtyard alone measured roughly 120 by 250 metres, and one wing reportedly rose six storeys. The craftsmen who built it were brought from the conquered territories of Persia and the Middle East.
What stands today are the two massive gateway pylons, each reaching about 38 metres, faced with bold geometric mosaics in blue, white, and gold. The tilework is dense and precise; sections of it have survived better than the structure itself. You can walk up to the base and look through the arch into what was once the palace precinct, now a park with a modern statue of Timur.
The ruins convey the ambition more vividly than a complete building would. Scale matters here: stand beside the pylons and you understand why contemporaries were awed by what Timur built.