CENTRAL ASIA ARCHITECTURE

SHERIN | KEERTHANA | SHAHROZ | RIZWAN | SHAHZEB | SAHIL | TAJULWARA | AMEED

TIMELINE
 INTRODUCTION

C ENTRAL A SIA IS COMPOSED OF

THE F IVE POST SOVIET COUNTRIES :-
C ENTRAL A SIA IS A L AND LOCKED REGION ,
WHICH IS LOCATED IN THE HEART OF A SIA. 1. K AZAKHSTAN
THE REGION S HARES BORD ERS WITH THE 2. U ZBEKISTAN
R USSIA IN THE NORTH , C HINA IN THE EAST,
3. T URKMENISTAN
C A S P IAN S EA IN THE WEST AN D EXTENDS TILL
IRAN A N D A FGHANISTAN IN THE SOUTH . 4. TAJIKISTAN
5. K YRGYZSTAN
 GEOGRAPHY

• Central Asia has an extremely varied geography,

including high mountain passes through vast
mountain ranges, such as the Tian Shan, Hindu
Kush, and the Pamirs.
• The region is also home to the vast Kara Kum
and Kyzyl Kum deserts, which dominate the
interior with extensive spans of sand and
desolation.
 CLIMATE

C ENTRAL A SIA HAS A DISTINCTIVE

CONTINENTAL ARID AND SEMI- ARID CLIMATE
WITH HOT, CLOUDLESS , DRY SUMMERS AND
MOIST, RELATIVELY WARM WINTERS IN THE
SOUTH AND COLD WINTERS WITH SEVERE
FROSTS IN THE NORTH .
 HISTORY

• History of central asia

• Central asia are determined at any given time in
history by the relationship between the “civilized”
and the “barbarian”- the two opposed but
complementary.
• The heluation so often propounded- of the civilized
with the sedentary and the barbarian with the
nomad- is misleading.
• The history of central asia is that of the barbarian,
and its dominant feature is the sometimes latent,
sometimes open conflict in which the barbarian
clashes with the civilized.
CENTRAL ASIAN ARCHITECTURE INFLUENCE

• ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE

• PERSIAN ARCHITECTURE

• RUSSIAN
ARCHITECTURE

• CHINESE ARCHITECTURE

The Central Asian Core shown with several of the civilizations that have
influenced it and its history. The Silk Road and other major transport routes
show how human migrations once brought the influences of several
civilizations through Central Asia.
 BUILDING MATERIALS
• The arid climate of Central Asia amalgamates with the prominent clay-type
soils that has been used most commonly in building material.

• Reeds
• In the neighborhood context of water bodies (drainage areas, ponds, lakes,
river) reeds were easy to cultivate.
• The uses of reed are many in building construction—as baskets and pails
for bringing wet and dry materials to the site, and as wall, roof, and floor
covering..

• Mud
• Mud is used where wood was readily available,
• It is a flexible, inexpensive material.
• It can be compacted inside a frame for walls

• Wood
• Wood of tamarisk tree were used to frame reed and roof beams for flat
roofs.
• Doors and gates were made up of similar wood(tamarisk)
• In monumental buildings wood were used as decorative material

• Bricks (sundried and baked)

• The most common kind of brick being the sun-dried itself. This was made by
mixing a slurry of clayey soil, straw, and water, cutting it into uniform sized
bricks with a frame, and letting the bricks dry in the sun.
• The larger the brick, the longer it took to dry and harden.
• No motar was used for the sun dried in the layering of bricks but rather
stucco coating was used
• Fired brick had to be mortared but did not require a stucco facing.
• Ceramic Tile
• Used to reflect the decorative and the striking colors and
patterns
• Tile could be used as an all-over wall or dome covering to
render a Koranic verse
• Also commonly used for the restoration of historic,
commercial and residential building

• Stone
• When stones were used walls tend to be thick and windows
few and small.
• The stone can be laid dry, without mortar,
• But to block the wind the interior walls are plastered.
• Marble is quarried for expensive monumental buildings and
used in flooring and in foundation construction

• Felt
• When the mat is unrolled, the piece of felt that emerges is
fairly waterproof, soft, insulating, and hardy. It can be used
for the exterior walls of yurts, carpets, blankets and wall
coverings.
 TYPES OF BUILDINGS IN CENTRAL ASIA
MOSQUES
Central Asian mosques typically have a
large portal which leads to a
colonnaded space (sometimes open,
sometimes closed) and covered prayer
area. Many small mosques have a
pointed roof supported by carved
wooden columns. Some large ones
have an enclosed space divided by
many supporting pillars. See Islam
Architecture.
MAUSOLEUMS
Mausoleums were built by famous
leader to highlight their fame or to
honor holymen. Most have a prayer
room set under a domed cupola. The
actual tombs may be located in a
central hall or underground in a
cryptlike room. Some have
accommodation, washrooms and
kitchens
MINARETS
Central Asian minarets are typically
made of brick, sometimes covered
with tiles, and often tapered inward to
make the building nearby look bigger.
Some have stairways which the
muezzin climbed to call the faithful to
prayer from the top. Others, like he
ones at the Registan, are purely
ornamental.
 GENERAL CHARECTERISTICS

TIMURID ARCITECTURE COMBINES

*CENTRALLY PLANNED
*SYMMETRICAL PERSIAN STRUCTURES WITH CENTRAL ASIAN
DECORATIVE ELEMENTS.

EXTERIORS OF THE BUILDING WERE DECORATED WITH

*POLYCHROME TILE MOSAICS
*UNDER GRID BUILDINGLAZED PAINTED TILES

TIMURID BUILDING ARE KNOW FOR THEIR

*MONUMENTAL SCALE
*MULTIPLE MINARETS
*POLYCHROMIC TILE WORK
*BULBOUS DOUBLE DO9MES
*AXIAL SYMMETRY

USED GILDED PAPIER-MACHE EXTENSIVELY IN THE INTERIOR OF

THEIR BUILDINGS
DOMES MINARETS
*MOST TIMURID BUILDING HAVE DOUBLE-SHELL *MOST OF THE MINARETS IN TIUMRID ARCHITECTURAL
DOMES WITH A THICK OUTER DOMES AND A ARE FOUND WITH A
THIN INNER DOMES. ROUND CAPPING AT THE TOP, DECORATED WITH
*THE OUER DOME IS TURQUOISE AND BLUE COLOURS.
TALL
MELON-SHAPED
RIBBED
DECORATED WITH COLOURFUL TILES.
*VAULTS SUPPORTING THE DOMES WERE NOT
ONLY STRUCTURALLY COMPLX BUT DAZZLINGLY TYPES OF MINARETS USED IN TIMRUID ARCITECTURE
DECORATED WITH TRADITIONAL ISLAMIC MUQARNAS.
FUNCTION OF PALACE

*THE PALACE TOOK ON SEVERAL FUNCTION: IT WAS THE PLACE FOR RECREATION
AND ENTERTAINMENT OF THE ROYAL FAMILY, AS WELL AS ADMINISTRATION
BUILDING
*ON THE AXIS OF THE COURTYARD THERE WERE DOMED QUARTERS FOR HOLDING
SESSIONS OF DIVAN-COUNCIAL OF STATE.
*ONE OF THE POOLS WAS INTENDED FOR THE HOLY FISH. THE POOLS WERE FED
ALLAH
BY THE WATER FLOWING IN THE LEAD CONDUIT FROM THE NEARBY MOUNTAINS.
*THE PORTAL NICHE IS DECORATED WITH ELEGANT MOSAICS AND CARVED
AS WELL AS QUOTATION FROM KORAN EXECUTED IN SULUS SCRIPT.

*THE RESPLENDENT EXTERIOR DECORATION SVERING THE WALLS AND DOMES OF

THE AK-SARAY PALACE STILL AROUSES ADMIRATION .
*LARGE SCALE GEOMETRICAL ORNAMENTAL PATTERNS ON ITS FACADES ARE MADE MUHAMMAD
OF DARK AND LIGHT BLUE GLAZED BRICKS.
GLITTERING AGAINTS THE POLISHED BACKGROUND THEY POLISHED BRICK
BACKGROUND
THEY IMPART A PARTICULAR PICTURESQUENESS AND GRANDEUR TO THE BUILDING.

ALI(QUADRUPLE)
D ECORATED CEILING S TAL ACTITE CAPITALS P ILL ARS ARE USUALLY
OF MOSQUE HIGHLY CARVED AND MADE
OF ELM , PR WALNUT WOOD
THE COPPER CITY
SAMARKAND CITY ,UZBERKISTAN
Climate
▪ Samarkand has a mostly mid-latitude desert climate, with long, hot summers, and mild winters.
▪ The average maximum daytime temperature in January is 44°F (6°C),
▪ rising to an average maximum of around 92°F (33°C) in July.
▪ Mean annual precipitation is 9.2 inches (236mm)..

Geography
▪ Samarkand is located in the valley of the Zeravshan River, at an elevation of (724 meters) above sea
level. The land surrounding Samarkand is arid and windswept.

▪ Samarkand comprises an old medieval city and a new area built after the Russian conquest in the nineteenth
century
▪ The city was a substantial city renowned for its craft production with a citadel and strong fortifications.
▪ Served as a capital for sogdian satrapy and the tamerlane empire.
REGISTAN SQUARE, SAMARKAND
REGISTAN SQUARE
Registan Square Uzbekistan, is the main square in Samarkand was the heart of the
Timurid dynasty built by the Turkic-Mongolian leader, Timur. The square is dominated
Ulugbke Madrasah a religious education mosque.
 The registan was a public square, where people gathered to
REGISTAN SQUARE hear royal proclamations, heralded by blasts on enormous
copper pipes called dzharchis - and a place of public executions.

It is framed by three madrasahs

(islamic schools) of distinctive
islamic architecture. The square was
regarded as the hub of the timurid
renaissance.
REGISTAN SQUARE N

PLAN
ULUG BEG MADARASA
The madrasa of Ulugh Beg is the oldest extant building in Samarkand's Registan It was built
between 1417 and 1421 by the then-Timurid governor of Samarkand, Ulugh Beg, Timur's
grandson and prominent astronomer, who was later emperor between 1447 and
1449. Architect by Tahir b. Mahmad Isfahani.

The façade of the

madrassah looks out on the
square, completed with two
tall minarets in the corners
Facade which is primarily
decorated with tessellated
starlike elements that form
a dazzling array of
"constellations",
ULUG BEG
MADARASA

Special attention should be given to

an exquisite interior of the building.
Glazed bricks and Ceramic tilework
create beautiful ornaments on the
yellowish laying of the walls. The
madrassah portal is adorned with
patterns of ten-pointed stars
symbolizing the sky, and astronomy.
muqarnas vaulting. A small screen
window at the center of the alcove
provides a glimpse of the courtyard
within.
ULUG BEG MADARASA N
PLAN

The madrasa is a square building measuring 56

x 81 meters . Two interior passageways branch
off from the entry doors that flank the alcove,
permitting access to the courtyard. Four iwan
dominate the courtyard at the center of each
wall, flanked by two levels of student
dormitories (hujras). At the corners of the
building are four medium sized domed
classrooms called darskhans—a design
feature. the long mosque at the back of the
madrasa which provided a large worship space
for faculty and students. In future madrasas the
usual practice was to place the mosque in one
of the corners by converting a corner classroom
space into a mosque dedicated to that purpose.
SHER-DOR MADRASSAH

In 1612, Yalangtush Bahadur Being a ruler of the city, he decided to construct another madrassah on the
Square of Registan opposite the building erected by Ulughbek Construction lasted until 1636three madrasas
arranged in a kosh configuration

While ulugh beg was content to use

star-like geometric forms yalangtush
sponsored a striking composition
depicting two lions chasing deer.
A difference from ulugh beg's model is
the presence of two fluted domes over
the corner classrooms on the west
façade
SHER-DOR
MADRASSAH

Inside this madrasah is decorated

with bright ornaments of glazed
brick, walls and towers are
covered with majolica of various
patterns of climber flowers and
quotations from kuran on arabic.
SHER-DOR MADRASSAH N
PLAN
 TILLA-KORI MADRASSAH
Ten years later since the construction of the Sher-Dor madrassah, the ruler of Samarkand Yalangtush Bahadur had planned to erect
another buildingconstruction began in 1646, in the northern part of the Registan Square, on the place of the caravan-sarai. The
architect decided that the new madrassah should be another copy of already existing buildings, though would be located in the
center. lasted more than 14 years and finished in 1660
 TILLA-KORI
MADRASSAH

The main façade of the building is

done in two levels; the central portal is
silted with a five-ended deep niche
with two entrances leading to the inner
closed yard. There is a blue-domed
tower of the mosque to the left of the
portal, with two minarets standing on
both sides of the frontal part. The
construction beautifully balances two
bigger madrassah without disturbing
the unity of the architectural style.
 N
TILLA-KORI MADRASSAH
PLAN

The building is a hybrid of a congregational

mosque and madrasa, as it lacks the corner
lecture halls (darskhans) that are present in
nearly all large central Asian madrasas.
Instead, the west side of the building
includes a large prayer hall flanked by
adjacent chambers that offered ample
indoor space for instruction and worship. In
fair weather, instruction might have taken
place in the building's enormous courtyard or
in the shadow of its three inward-facing
iwans. Students occupied the numerous
hujras (cell-like dormitories) that surround
the courtyard, but only one floor of hujras
was built instead of the two floors present at
the Registan's other madrasas.
GUR-E-AMIR MAUSOLEUM
BUILT 1403-04.

The site of the tomb was originally a

khanqah and madrasa the two
buildings of the religious foundation
faced one another across a wide
courtyard in a qosh arrangement,
which Chuvin and Degeorge
describe as the earliest application
of this urban planning principle that
was later used extensively in
Samarkand,

exterior appearance is dominated by the

high dome and the large entrance pishtaq
GUR-E-AMIR
MAUSOLEUM

interior of the tomb chamber is of "papier

mache" muqarnas vaulting decorated
throughout with gilded kundal, a laborious
technique involving the application of
mortar-like glue covered in polychrome
paints and accented with gold plating,
lending a three-dimensional effect.

Amid this splendor, the small, understated

cenotaphs appear to be a mere footnote,
though the actual sarcophagi are located
deep underground in a hidden chamber
whose arrangement of graves mirrors
those in the tomb hall.
GUR-E-AMIR MAUSOLEUM
DOME

At the gur-e-amir both techniques(monumental pishtaqs and a high

drum was used to exaggerate the height of the dome. The site of the
tomb chamber, and a brilliantly decorated pishtaq at the front of the
ensemble that stands on axis with the tomb.

The dome's height, mounted as it is on a tall cylindrical drum, was

only achievable by means of employing a hidden inner dome and
extensive cross bracing to redistribute the outward pressure of the
dome, lest it tear the cylindrical drum apart. such techniques to
produce "double shelled domes" were familiar to architects in iran
and other areas conquered by timur, suggesting persian conscripts
were responsible for the design
GUR-E-AMIR MAUSOLEUM
PLAN
N
AL SARAY MAUSOLEUM

Timurid-era family mausoleum

built in 1470 during the reign of Sultan
Ahmed the architects made a
subterranean crypt and set atop it a
domed hall that was a near-copy of that
at the Ishrat Khana.
BUKHARA CITY ,UZBERKISTAN
CLIMATE
▪ Bukhara has a typically Central Asian cool arid climate .
▪ avg temp in January is 6.6 °C or 43.9 °F,
▪ avg temp 37.2 °C or 99.0 °F in July.
▪ annual precipitation is 135 millimetres or 5.31 inches.

GEOGRAPHY
▪ About 140 miles (225 km) west of Samarkand in south-central Uzbekistan,
▪ Bukhara is located on the Zeravshan River, at an elevation of 751 feet (229 meters).

▪ Cities were built near rivers and water channels were built to serve the entire city. Uncovered reservoirs,
known as hauzes, were constructed.
▪ prominent stop on the Silk Road trade route between the East and the West,
▪ still contains hundreds of well-preserved mosques, madrassas, bazaars and caravanserais

▪ dating :frm the 9th to the 17th centuries

 .SAMANID MAUSOLEUM

▪ northwestern part of Bukhara

▪ 10th century -influential Islamic Samanid
dynasty that ruled the Samanid Empire and
oldest funerary building of Central Asian
architecture
▪ Elaborate baked brick decoration is unique in
its level of detail and rhythmic patterns
 .SAMANID
MAUSOLEUM

▪ combines multi-cultural decorative motifs

(Sogdian, Sassanian, Persian, Arabic,
Antique).
▪ used squinches, containing four interior
archesand an octagonal structure,that
allowed to redistribute the weight of the
circular dome over a square base, an
alternative to pendentives.
▪ baked brick of various rectangular and
square sizes for both structural and
decorative elements of the building.
 N

.SAMANID MAUSOLEUM
(PLAN)
PO-I-KALYAN
COMPLEX.

▪ pre-Islamic era -central cathedral for

fire-worshippers.
▪ 1127- the Karakhanid ruler Arslan-
khan completed
construction on the cathedral mosque
with the minaret.
▪ Later yr its reconstruct many times

▪ the Kalan Mosque (Masjid-i Kalan)

▪ the Kalan Minaret (Minâra-i Kalân)
▪ the Mir-i-Arab Madrasah.
N
THE KALAN MOSQUE
(MASJID-I KALAN)

The mosque itself is 130 x 81 meters 30 meter

height of the blue dome makes the structure
particularly imposing.

Mosque is an entirely inwards facing build with

its lack of exterior windows exterior walls were
decorated with majolica and other ornamental
tiles. blue and white tile mosaics, vegetal
motifs, and patterned glazed brick lining the
building
THE KALAN MOSQUE
(MASJID-I KALAN)

The interior structure consists

of a hypostyle layout which meets
the internal courtyard through
two hundred and eighty eight
domes lining the inner courtyard.
 N
THE KALAN MOSQUE (MASJID-I KALAN) PLAN

Four iwans lie on the axes of the

courtyard with an even larger arched
iwan denoting the east-facade of the
main structure
THE KALAN MINARET
(MINÂRA-I KALÂN)
designed by Bako,
built by the Qarakhanid ruler Mohammad Arslan Khan
in 1127
It is made in the form of a circular-pillar baked brick
tower, narrowing upwards.
It is 45.6 metres (149.61 ft) high (48 metres including
the point),
9 metres (29.53 ft) diameter at the bottom and 6
metres (19.69 ft) overhead.

There is a brick spiral staircase that twists up inside

around the pillar to the rotunda
bricks which are placed in both straight or diagonal
fashion.
THE MIR-I-ARAB
MADRASAH.

There are two big blue domes of the Miri- Arab

madrasah towering above the surrounding buildings
in the center of Bukhara.
• It is related to the sheikh Abdallah Yamani . The
exterior of the Mir-i-Arab spans 73 x 55 meters while
the internal courtyard has dimensions of 37 x 33
meters.
The inner yard is adorned with composed
carved mosaic .
two-story facade covered by glazed mosaic
tiles inspired again by late Timurid artwork.
 N
THE MIR-I-ARAB MADRASAH
PLAN

A square yard , surrounded with two floors of cell,

two big domed halls in the left and right corners.
There are two store loggias adjoining the main
façade in the center highlight with a portal
CHOR MINOR

gatehouse for a now-destroyed madrasa in the historic

city of Bukhara
The towers of Chor Minor are not minarets. Three of
them were used for storage, and one has a staircase
leading to the top floor.
domes covered by blue ceramic tiles.
Each of four towers have different deco rational motifs.
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