FROM THE ARCHIVE: The Bibi-Khanym Mosque in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, photographed in color in 1907.
FROM THE ARCHIVE: The Bibi-Khanym Mosque in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, photographed in color in 1907.
Built between 1399 and 1405 on the orders of Amir Timur, it was one of the largest mosques in the world in its day, a statement of Samarkand's power as the capital of a vast empire. By the time Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii captured it, centuries of earthquakes, including the 1897 quake, had left it in ruins, its great dome cracked and its portal broken.
Look closely and daily life carries on in its shadow: market stalls, carts and horses at the foot of a fallen giant. Restored after Uzbekistan's independence, it stands again today as the city's landmark.
Photo: Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii, Library of Congress, 1907.