Мавзолей Шейха Ховенди ат Тахура (Шейхантаура)

The Mausoleum of Sheikh Khovandi at-Takhur stands in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, as a fourteenth-century burial complex. Its small brick structure carries dark-blue majolica tiles and rises beneath a tall dome. Inside, an ancient tree trunk appears to grow from the building’s interior.

The mausoleum holds Sheikh Hovendi at-Tahur, a local Sufi saint who died in Tashkent around 1360. He entered the Yasaviyya order of dervishes as a child and later joined it in Yasi, now Turkestan. The surrounding cemetery also holds Yunus Khoja, an eighteenth-century ruler of Tashkent, and Alimqul Parvarchi, a Kokandian general. Sixteen monuments once formed the burial complex, but only three remain intact.

Qaldirghochbiy’s fifteenth-century mausoleum has a twelve-sided pyramidal dome, vaulted inside and dodecahedral outside. Earthquakes and Soviet-era changes removed many mosques and madrassahs from the wider Islamic complex. The principal dome received restoration in the nineteenth century and now carries metal sheeting against weather and pollution.