Two centuries were to pass before anyone found the energy
to continue building round the Registan on fee grand scale set by Ulug
Bek. By the time the Sheibanid khan  Yalangtush
Bahador took up the challenge, wind-blown sand and the detritus of endless
markets had caused street level to rise three metres. This Is why the Sher
Dor, or 'lion-bearing' madrasa (built 1619-35) seems higher than the Ulug
Bek madrasa which it faces and of which it is a near-copy. (It could not
be a perfect copy because, as the Koran says, 'nothing is perfect except
Allah.') The lions in question-said to be the ones in the Persian emblem
- are striped, which makes them look more like tigers. You will find them
chasing baby deer
across the space above fee principal arch, breaking the
Islamic rule so rigidly adhered to in the older building: to depict no
living thing. The twin suns rising over their backs are even given human
faces.han the original. You can go inside, however. The cells round the
courtyard produced an oversupply of student accommodation and were never
full until the madrasa became a Russian hotel in colonial times. Some are
now hard-currency gift shops, one of whose owners is called Sergei and
can let you onto the roof for an unusual view of the Registan.
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