We thought that, as a treat, we would spend an extra day relaxing in the excellent Zilol Baxta hotel which gives a 5-star service for only £35 a night. In the evening we walked the short distance to the Gur-e-Emir Mausoleum where Timur, two sons and grandsons including Ulugbek the astronomer who calculated the length of the year to within 8 seconds, are buried. Timur had the place with its incredibly beautiful fluted dome built in 1404 for his grandson and proposed heir Mohammed Sultan who had died the previous year. He had built a simple crypt for himself at Shakhrisabz near where he was born but, when he died unexpectedly of pneumonia in Kazakhstan in the winter of 1405, while planning an invasion of China, the passes to Shakhrisabz were blocked with snow and he was buried in Gur-e-Emir. The mausoleum was closed but a nightwatchman offered to let us in for 22,000 som each (£2.20) and we decided to come back the next day. Daft move: we could have seen it floodlit and alone instead of accompanied by large numbers of tourists.
