Samarkand is one of the world's oldest cities, located in the very centre of Uzbekistan in the valley of the Zarafshan River. It has seen periods of power and decline throughout its 2700-year history. It was destroyed by Alexander the Great, the Arabs, Gengiz Khan and many other conquerors, but rose each time from the ashes, like a Phoenix.

In the 4^th century BC, then known as Maracanda, it was the capital of Sogdiana and was captured (329) by Alexander the Great.

Firm Muslim control in the region was not established before the middle of the eighth century (CE), and a century after that, Samarkand came under the control first of the Samanid and then the Karakhanid states. A group of Samanid memorial stones can be seen today on a platform just in back of the Registan. Like most successful rulers of the city, the Samanids invested in the irrigation system. Unfortunately, little remains of the architecture from this period in Samarkand. Fragments of a Karakhanid-era minaret and mausoleum may be seen in the oldest of the shrines of the Shah-i-Zinde.

The city destroyed by the Mongols when Chingis Khan invaded the area in 1220. In 1365,  it revolted against its Mongol rulers.

Many of the Central Asian cities quickly recovered from the Mongol invasion.   The real rebuilding of Samarkand as a great city had to await the decision by Timur.  In 1370, Timur made Samarkand the capital of his empire. According to the powerful ruler's order, thousands of skilful craftsmen from the conquered countries were moved forcefully here, whole districts planned for construction were destroyed without indemnity, leaving poor people with no place to live. By cruel, ruthless measures Timur sped up the transformation of Samarkand into a large city, trying in every possible way to emphasize the leading value of his capital among the most famous cities of the medieval world. According to Timur's intention, the majesty and beauty of Samarkand should have blurred all capitals of the world. The following constructions from Timur's days have reached us - the picturesque mausoleum Shahi-Zindah, main mosque Bibi Khanim, burial vault Guri-Emir. Samarkand became one of the most powerful and desired cities in the world during the Timur’s reign. He made the city the most important economic and cultural centre in Central Asia.

The main axis of the Timurid city stretched southwest from Afrasiab, passing the Bibi Khanum Mosque and Mausoleum complexes, then the Registan, and ending near the Gur-i Mir Mausoleum. The development of this urban centre continued apace under Tamerlane's grandson Ulughbeg, who ruled the city for much of the first half of the fifteenth century until he was assassinated in 1449. Ulugh Beg is well known for his scientific investigations, supported by the Observatory he built on the hills to the east of Afrasiab and the madrasa (school) he erected on the Registan. His observatory, built in 1439-30 in the northern suburbs of Samarkand, was a model for the two famous Indian observatories of the 18^th century in Jaipur and Delhi. The observatory has not survived, but and underground portion of its enormous sextant still attracts the eye.

Samarkand was conquered by Uzbeks in 1500 and became part of the khanate of Bukhara.

By the 18^th century it had declined, and from the 1720s to the 1770s it was uninhabited.

Only after it became a provincial capital of the Russian Empire (1887). With the arrival of the railway in 1896, Samarkand became an important centre for the export of wine, dried and fresh fruits, cotton, rice, silk, and leather.

It was briefly (1924-36) the capital of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic.

The city's industry is now based primarily on agriculture, with cotton ginning, silk spinning and weaving, fruit canning, and the production of wine, clothing, leather and footwear, and tobacco. The manufacture of tractor and automobile parts and cinema apparatus, however, is also economically important.