page_title: Samarkand
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Samarkand / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: Central Asia, Samarkand, Registan. A celebration of victory over an enemy. The Emir of Bukhara and the notables of the city watch how the heads of Russian soldiers are impaled on poles.Русский: Средняя Азия. Самарканд, площадь Регистан. Торжество победы над врагом. Эмир Бухары и жители города на площади, где водружают шесты с головами убитых русских солдат.
context_page_description: Samarkand, also known as Samarqand and Markanda, is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia. There is evidence of human activity in the area of the city from the late Paleolithic Era, though there is no direct evidence of when Samarkand was founded; some theories propose that it was founded between the 8th and 7th centuries BC. Prospering from its location on the Silk Road between China and the Mediterranean, at times Samarkand was one of the largest cities of Central Asia.
  By the time of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, it was the capital of the Sogdian satrapy. The city was conquered by Alexander the Great in 329 BCE, when it was known by its Sanskrit name of Markanda, which was rendered in Greek as. The city was ruled by a succession of Iranian and Turkic rulers until it was conquered by the Mongols under Genghis Khan in 1220. Today, Samarkand is the capitol of Samarqand Region and one of the largest cities of Uzbekistan.
  The city is noted as a centre of Islamic scholarly study and the birthplace of the Timurid Renaissance.
context_section_description: Along with Bukhara, Samarkand is one of the oldest inhabited cities in Central Asia, prospering from its location on the trade route between China and the Mediterranean (Silk Road). There is no direct evidence of when it was founded. Researchers at the Institute of Archaeology of Samarkand date the city's founding to the 8th–7th centuries BCE.
  Archaeological excavations conducted within the city limits (Syob and midtown) as well as suburban areas (Hojamazgil, Sazag'on) unearthed 40,000-year-old evidence of human activity, dating back to the Upper Paleolithic. A group of Mesolithic (12th–7th millennia BCE) archaeological sites were discovered in the suburbs of Sazag'on-1, Zamichatosh, and Okhalik. The Syob and Darg'om canals, supplying the city and its suburbs with water, appeared around the 7th–5th centuries BCE (early Iron Age). 
  From its earliest days, Samarkand was one of the main centres of Sogdian civilization. By the time of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia, the city had become the capitol of the Sogdian satrapy.
caption: Triumph by Vasily Vereshchagin, depicting the Sher-Dor Madrasa in Registan.
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