Samarqand or Samarkand, current Uzbekistan, is one of the oldest inhabited cities in Central Asia. Samarqand and Bukhara were once the cultural capital of the Persian world. Some historians believe that Samarqand was built somewhere between the 8th and 7th centuries BC. Prospering from its location on the Silk Road between China and the Mediterranean, at times Samarqand was one of the greatest cities of Central Asia. By the time of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, it was the capital of the Sogdian satrapy.
The city was conquered by Alexander the Great in 329 BC, when it was known by its Greek name of Marakanda. The city was ruled by a succession of Iranian and Turkic rulers until the Mongols under Genghis Khan conquered Samarkand in 1220. In the 14th century it became the capital of the empire of Timur, Tamerlane.
Today, Samarkand is the capital of Samarqand Region and Uzbekistan’s second largest city.