Kok-Gumbaz Mosque

The Kok-Gumbaz, or Blue Dome Mosque, was built in 1437 by Ulugh Beg, the Timurid ruler and celebrated astronomer, as a Friday prayer mosque in honour of his father Shah Rukh. The name is literal: the central dome is clad in the deep blue tilework that defines Timurid architecture across Central Asia.

The mosque is still in active use, which gives it a different atmosphere from the archaeological monuments nearby. Friday prayers draw local worshippers; at other times it is open to visitors. The interior is spacious and cool, with good surviving tilework and wooden screens.

Directly behind the mosque is the "House of Meditation," a mausoleum built in 1438. Together they form a compact religious ensemble that shows a functioning side of Timurid Shakhrisabz, distinct from the ruined grandeur of the Ak-Saray.

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A story
Ulugh Beg built the Kok-Gumbaz in 1437 as a Friday mosque in honour of his father Shah Rukh. Ulugh Beg is better known as an astronomer — his star catalogue, compiled in Samarkand, was the most accurate in the world before the invention of the telescope. He was later murdered on the orders of his own son. The mosque in Shakhrisabz is one of the few buildings that survives from his reign.