In the days of his glory Tamerlane determined to have erected for himself a mausoleum excelling in magnificence all the other buildings at Samarkand. For this purpose he selected the Persian architect, Abdullah, charging him to build a tomb worthy to enshrine his remains. The two original towers which flanked the cupola are both gone, one of them quite recently, and the great western archway is falling to pieces, but the immense Kûfic[5] characters (white on a blue ground) which form the frieze immediately below the cupola are still almost perfect. The style is not entirely Persian, but was probably modified by the influence of the architecture which the Persians found in Samarkand. On each side of the main building is a small chapel containing tombs of minor importance. Entering the tomb by a beautifully carved and inlaid door, we found ourselves in a little sanctuary, where the faithful come to pray, laying their foreheads against the walls. The height of the dome (measured from within) is about 74 feet. Despite a small window at each end containing alabaster tracery, the light is dim, and a religious hush seems to pervade the building. Not only Tamerlane but others also are buried here. Shortly after the building of the mausoleum, his teacher, Saïd Mir Berke, a venerable mullah (holy man), died, so Tamerlane showed his supreme reverence for him by having him buried in the Gur Amir, ordering that his own body should be placed (when he died) at the mullah’s feet. There are in addition several small tombstones surrounding the special slab (said to be of green jade) which marks Tamerlane’s resting-place. This precious monolith was sent for this purpose by a Mongolian princess ten years after his death to his successor, Nadir Shah, but was unfortunately broken in the transport. The two pieces have been fastened together, and it has been elaborately carved with Tamerlane’s name, titles, and ancestry, interspersed with passages from the Koran. Copies of these are for sale at the tomb. Monsieur Edouard Blanc, in an interesting article in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ (Feb. 15, 1893), says he examined this stone very carefully from the mineralogist’s point of view, and has no hesitation in declaring that it is not jade. Certainly there is no other known specimen of this stone anything like the size, for jade is only found in small pieces; but there are other stones frequently mistaken for jade, such as jadeite (hence its name), which is not nearly so valuable. Tamerlane’s known desire to have a tomb of jade is probably the reason why it is so called. The jade mines of Turkestan have been celebrated in China for at least 2000 years. Above the mullah’s tomb are two crossed bamboo poles bearing the Prophet’s green flag, and the standard, which consists of a horse’s mane and a gold button. The tombs are enclosed by a low alabaster-work balustrade, as seen on the left hand in the sketch.