Katta Lyangar, Shakhrisabz, Uzbekistan

Architectural ensemble Katta-Lyangar, unusual for mountain areas of Uzbekistan, is situated 60 kilometers to the south from Shahrisabz. It was built in the middle of narrow gorge Kok-Su in Lyangar-cai valley and consists of a mosque and Lyangar-ata mausoleum. The two constructions were built on neighbouring hills at the beginning of the 16th century under the Sheybanids.

Katta Lyangar - a monument in the mountains

Standing on a high hill, Lyangar-ata mausoleum is visible from everywhere and looks like an unearthly 'space' object. Mehrab of Katta-Lyangar mosque faces the mausoleum. In the mausoleum there were buried sheikhs from very influential (in 15th - 16th) Sufi community 'Ishkiya'. There are stone steles with sheikhs' epitaphs: by Muhammad Sodik (died in 1543), called Lyangar-ata (from 'lyangar' - anchor, stop), by his father and son.

The internal dome of the mausoleum is decorated with thin ornamental carving on color ganch. Lyangar community of 'Ishkiya' kept a unique list of 'Usman's Koran' and legendary Khirka (raincoat) of Prophet Muhammad. The khirka was taken away when Afghans invaded the city in the middle of the 18th century and was kept in mausoleum of Ahmad-shah Durrani in Kandahar. Several pages from Lyangar list of 'Usman's Koran' are being kept in Tashkent and Petersburg.