Samarkand Registan — Tilework Dusk Illumination
899.00 د.إ
The Registan ensemble in Samarkand at dusk — the three madrasah facades with their 15th-century Timurid tilework illuminated against a deep blue sky, the mosaic of lapis lazuli, turquoise, and gold at maximum colour saturation.
Description
The Registan of Samarkand is the world’s finest ensemble of medieval Islamic architecture — three madrasahs surrounding a central plaza, their facades covered in tilework of extraordinary colour and geometric complexity that ranges from the 15th-century original Ulugh Beg Madrasah to the 17th-century Sher-Dor and Tilla-Kari additions. The dusk illumination window — when the sky is deep blue and the monument lighting provides the dominant illumination — is the optimal photography period for communicating both the facade geometry and the tilework colour. This image was made from the Registan plaza at 25 minutes post-sunset: the sky has sufficient residual colour to provide separation from the monument while the floodlighting brings out the lapis, turquoise, and white tile palette at maximum saturation. Shot on a 24mm prime at f/8 with a 4-second exposure, both the near madrasah detail and the far facade are sharp within the deep field.
