Registan means “Sandy Place”, and the sand reportedly soaked up the blood of public executions. Crowds gathered here to hear royal proclamations, and the square doubled as medieval Central Asia’s main bazaar.

Then, in 1420, the astronomer-king Ulugbek built a madrasa on it and taught there himself. Two more followed in the 1600s. The Tilya-Kari was gilded inside to show off Samarkand’s wealth. The Sher Dor’s entrance arch flouts Islam’s ban on depicting living beings with roaring beasts that look more like tigers than lions.

Today the traders are back, tucked into the old student cells. VoiceMap’s self-guided tours take you inside the madrasas and show how one patch of sand became an execution ground, a market, a university and a market again.