One of the most breathtaking stunts in all mythology took place a five-minute walk from the bazaar down Ulitsa Dzurakulova around the time of the Arab invasion. A cousin of the prophet Mohammed named Oasim lbn-Abbas, believed to have visited Samarkand in 676 ad while converting Sogdiana to Islam, was at prayer In a shady spot on the edge of old Afrasiab when a band of zealous fire-worshippers stole up and beheaded him. Not one to be distracted by trifles, Oasim first finished his prayer. Then he picked up his head, tucked it under his arm and jumped down a nearby well where he has lived ever since, ready at a moment's notice to return to the defence of Islam. In another version he escaped the Infidels by walking into a cliff which opened miraculously for him. 

A memorial complex already existed here in the 12th century, but the Mongols destroyed everything except Qaslm's shrine, of which lbn Battuta wrote in 1333:  

' The inhabitants of Samarkand come out to visit it every Sunday and Thursday night. The Tartars also come to visit it, pay vows to it and bring cows, sheep, dirhams and dinars. All this is used for the benefit of visitors and the servants of the hospital and the blessed tomb.'  

Nowadays you enter Shah-I-Zinda through a portal commissioned by Ulug Bek and built 1434-35. Carpets are sold in the modest Davlat Rush-Begi madrasa (1813) on the right. On the left Is a working mosque with an enclosed 19th-century winter section and an open summer one built In 1910. 

Straight ahead the 'Stairway to Heaven' leads past what was thought to be the tomb of Kazi Zade Rumi (built 1420-35), Ulug Bek's teacher and a renowned Turkish astronomer-but the only bones found here are of a 30 to 35 year-old woman with Mongol features who may have been Tamerlane's nurse. Pilgrims count the steps on the stairway with great care. If they count wrong they have to climb them all again, once for  Inch step in the staircase, or risk not going to heaven. There are 36 steps. 
  
First on the right at the top is the Emir Hussein mausoleum (1376). Hussein, also known as Tuglu-tekin, seems to have been the son of a Turk named Kara Kutluk, to have died a martyr 600 years before his tomb was built, and to have been claimed by Tamer- lane as an ancestor. The Emir Zade mausoleum (1386) is opposite.  

The next pair of tombs, also from Tamerlane's time, commemorate three of the women in his life and are the best preserved and most dazzling in the complex. On the right, the Shirin Bika Aka mausoleum (1385) has an unusual 16-sided drum as the base for its cupola, designed by an architect specially imported from Khorezm. The interior decoration shows Chinese Influence, with mosaic landscapes including shrubs, streams, clouds, and trees with buds. Shim Is thought to have been one of Tamerlane's nieces.  

One of his wives and one of her daughters are buried opposite under the Shadi Mulk Aka mausoleum (1372). Its facade is an unrivalled tour de force, nowhere else in fee world of ceramic art, it has been argued, have so many decorative techniques been brought together which such skill and refinement. Long faience panels sculpted with stylized flowers, calligraphy and pure, abstract designs are bordered by bands of mosaic and terracotta. Every shade of blue and every visual motif available to the craftsmen, probably from Azerbaijan, is on show here In apparently endless combinations, and in near-perfect condition after 600 years.  

The octagonal structure next to fee Shim Bika Aka mausoleum may be a mausoleum itself, though no bones have been found under it. Or it may have been a minaret. No-one knows. Neither is much known about the next three mausolea on the left of the 'street'. The last and biggest of them, next to the arch at the end, is thought to be the tomb of Emir Burunduk, one of Tamerlane's generals. All three are dated about 1380.  

Through fee arch, the first mausoleum on the left, completed in 1404, is that of Tuman  Aka, yet another wife of Tamerlane's. The colour violet makes a rare appearance in its exterior decoration. The interior, reached through a fine carved wood door, is also unusual, in this case because it has been left white and completely unadorned except for tiny painted landscapes under the cupola. The Khodja Akhmad mausoleum is the second oldest In the complex and forms its north end. Excavations beneath it have revealed a crypt containing fragments of marble tombstones painted gold and blue. Dating from the mid-14th century, this and the adjoining Shah Arab mausoleum (c.1360) may have been built by the same man, a local master named Fakhri All. 

Opposite the Tuman Aka mausoleum stands the 600 year-old 'Door of Paradise'. Once encrusted with gold, silver and ivory, it Is now plain wood. It leads to the oldest part of Shah-i-Zinda; the Kussam ibn-Abbas mausoleum and Its adjoining mosque. This is where the Living KIng lives. The inside of the 15th-century mosque, reached via an entrance hall, used to be completely covered in tiles; panels of locally-made ones surrounded Persian imports. To the left of the door leading from mosque to tomb there Is a wooden frieze carved with words from the Koran-but also, in the mihrabot niche in the western wall, there is a smudge of soot claimed as evidence of continuing fire-worship. Some of the mausoleum's foundations date from the 10th century, but the grave itself is 11th, which means the Prophet's cousin had to spend at least 300 years headless down his well. 

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