Sights of Tashkent.

“Once Hodge took the grain to the mill. Standing in line, from time to time he poured grain from foreign bags into his own. Miller noticed this and asked:
- Shame on you, Molla, what are you doing?
“I'm kinda crazy,” said Hodge, confused.
- If you are crazy, then why do not you pour your grain in other people's bags?
“Eh,” Hodge said, “I said that I was crazy, but I didn’t say that I was a fool...”

100 stories about Khoja Nasreddin.

Excursions on monuments of Tashkent.

The ensemble of Sheikhantaur is an architectural complex, the center of which is the Mausoleum of Sheikh Hovendi at-Tahura (Sheihantaura). According to written sources, in the 5th-8th centuries, local people professed Zoroastrianism on the territory of Chach.
On the territory occupied by the Sheihantaur architectural complex there were several houses (pools with water), since water was also one of the images of Zoroastrian worship. Also among the local pre-Islamic population there was a cult of tree-long-worshiping worship. Apparently, Saur alley was the alley of religious trees.
According to legends, Sheikh at-Tahur, having traveled to the city of Turkestan, where he learned the mystical philosophy of Ahmad Yassavi, learning patience and meekness, after many years of wandering, he returned to Tashkent and settled at the holy source, about which a beautiful legend had been built over time immemorial.
According to this legend, the water of “eternal life” beat from this source, and on its shore, in the shade of the trees, Iskander the Two-Horned himself (Iskander Zulkarnay) rested, that is, Alexander the Great. According to legend, in pre-Islamic times, this key had a pagan temple of Water and Fire.
It was here that Sheikh al-Tahur (Khavendi Takhur from Bogustan), who died in 1355, bequeathed himself. At his grave for a long time the so-called sauri of Iskander grew - millennial trees that had lost their foliage and almost petrified with age.
The trunk of one of these trees has survived to the present day inside the Sheikhantaur mausoleum, right next to its grave. Chronology of the construction of architectural monuments and structures on the territory of the complex.
The mausoleum of Sheikh Xavendi Tahur from Bogustan (Sheikhantaur), who died in 1355, was first built. At the end of the fifteenth century, Chilliakhona, Kyldyrgach Biya mausoleum, Yunus Khan Mogulistan mausoleum were built.
In 1892, the chortak and the madrasa of Ishan Kuli-datkh, depicted in the photograph, were built.
In 1908 - 1910 Khojimat-Ishan from Namangan built an Aurat mosque with a minaret.
In 1913, a minaret was built near the mausoleum of Yunus Khan.
In addition, the complex was still Kuktellik-ata mausoleum and the Kaba mausoleum. There were also several quarterly frame mosques: the Zanjirlik mosque at the entrance to the complex, and the Garib and Said Azimbay mosques on the sides of the Yunus Khan mausoleum.
In 1932, the Khatun Mosque, built in 1754, was moved to the complex from the “old city”. In the 1980s, another mosque was moved to the complex from the “old city”. The ensemble of Sheikhantaur is an architectural complex, the center of which is the Mausoleum of Sheikh Hovendi at-Tahura (Sheihantaura).
One of the most important architectural monuments of Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It is located in the center of modern Tashkent in a quadrilateral formed by the streets of Alisher Navoi, Shaykhantohur and Abdulla Kadiri.
Currently, there is partly an Islamic University. At the entrance to the Sheykhantur cemetery there was a house (reservoir) of Lyangar. On the territory of the complex there were several chortak - one was located at the mausoleum Kuchkar-ata of the fifteenth century, one inside the cemetery and one was built in 1892 at the entrance to the complex.
From the chortak at the Kuchkar-ata mausoleum to the Sheikhantaur mausoleum there was a path - guish yul, located below the main ground level, along which there was an alley of ancient saur (saury tree species tui). In the 1980s, it was a flower garden that ran from Navoi Street to the mausoleum of Yunuskhan.
Also on the territory of the Sheykhantaur complex several 500 summer plane trees grew. At the mausoleum of Kuchkar-at, a karagach grew, hung with horns of goats. Also, until the beginning of the 20th century, frame gazebos, shaypans, oshkhona (dining room), tea houses (tea shops), dukan shops for selling cakes and sweets, as well as booths for shows during holidays were located on the territory of the Sheikhantaur complex.
Since 1924, the cemetery was closed and almost all the buildings in the complex were demolished. In 1947, the church was demolished in 1892, in 1964 the remains of the Ishankul-Dakhta madrasah were demolished, in which a film studio was located in Soviet times.
In 1967, the Khatun Mosque, which served as a library, was dismantled. The mausoleum of Sheikhantaur in 1910-1920 was repaired at the expense of Sheikh Khojimat-Ishan: the repair of the dome was made, which was covered with iron.
In Soviet times, Mavz Kaldyrgach-biy was located on the territory of a souvenir factory. The domes of the mausoleum were restored in the 1970s by the design of the architect V. M. Filimonov. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Central Asian restoration workshops were located in the premises of the Yunus Khan mausoleum; therefore, the mausoleum building was constantly being repaired.
In 1980 – 1981, the general restoration of the mausoleum building was carried out according to the design of the architect M.I. Burshtein.

Sheikhantaur Mausoleum.

The mausoleum (mazar) of Sheikhantaur repeatedly changed its appearance after it was built in the XIVth century. Inside the mazar, next to the tombstone is a unique, still preserved, petrified sacred Saur Iskander. Sauras are local coniferous trees.
Around the mausoleum there was a whole grove of such saunas, which were already lifeless in the XVth century. It is believed that their origin is associated with the name of Alexander the Great, who is highly revered in the East, as a mythical hero or Pahlevan.
It is possible that precisely because of these memorable conifers, this place was chosen for the burial of Sheikhantaur. Dimensions of the mausoleum: width - 16.2 x 9 m, height - 12.8 m.
Sheykhantaur burial complex Sheikhantaur cemetery - the most popular holy place in Tashkent in the XVI century.
Local aristocracy was buried here. Burial complex began to form in the suburbs, among the estates of wealthy citizens. Over time, a whole funerary complex was formed around the Sheikhantaur mausoleum. The complex, together with the urban area around (in the local mahalla), received the name Sheikhantaur.
Many prominent personalities who left their mark on the history of Tashkent were buried here. One of them was Yunus Khoja, who was first hokim (chief of makhallas) Sheikhantaur, and then ruler of Tashkent, when in the XVIII century Tashkent was a semi-independent city-state.
Another prominent person buried here is Alimkul Parvarchi - the Kokand general who defended Tashkent from the Russian troops in 1864 - 1865, but was eventually mortally wounded on May 9, 1865 during a two-hour battle not far from Tashkent and during an attempt to counterattack General M G. Chernyaeva, besieged Tashkent.
His death, among other reasons, contributed to the fact that General MG Chernyaev seized Tashkent as a result of the assault on June 16, 1865. By the beginning of the XX century. it was already a huge complex of monuments, including dome gates, houses, mosques, mausoleums and madrasas.
Only 3 (out of 16) monuments of the Sheikhantuar burial complex have survived to our time. In addition to the Sheykhantaur Mausoleum, the Kaldirgobbiya mausoleum and the Yunus Khan mausoleum are preserved.

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