Uzbek Architecture

The architecture of Uzbekistan combines ancient traditional design with features adapted to the region's climate, centered on the historic cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, Shakhrisabz, Termez and Kokand, where surviving palaces, mausoleums, mosques and minarets are distinguished by colorful mosaics, religious symbols and abstract geometric patterns. Its architectural record spans pre-Islamic construction of the Stone and Bronze Ages through Islamic architecture, above all the Timurid period of the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries and the Shaybanid era of the sixteenth century, when the region's position as a central link on the eleven thousand kilometer Silk Road drove a flourishing of building, and continues through nineteenth century residential design into twenty first century construction that balances traditional forms with modern building technique.