The Sultan Who Built a Castle for the Stars

In the heart of 15th-century Samarkand, Uzbekistan, amid the turquoise domes and bustling trade routes of Central Asia, stood one of the most advanced observatories of the medieval world.

Built not for royalty or warfare, but for science, the Ulugh Beg Observatory was a marvel of architecture and intellect… an astronomical center so precise, it outshone much of Europe for nearly a century.

The Astronomer-King

The man behind the observatory was Ulugh Beg, a Timurid prince and grandson of conqueror Tamerlane. Unlike his ancestors, Ulugh Beg wasn’t interested in conquest... he was obsessed with the stars. A mathematician, astronomer, and visionary ruler, he transformed Samarkand into a hub of scientific thought.

He was also a skilled educator. Ulugh Beg personally taught astronomy and mathematics at his madrasa (religious and scientific school), one of the most prestigious institutions in Central Asia at the time. His classroom was filled with some of the era’s brightest scholars, and he often joined his students in calculations.

In 1420, he commissioned an observatory on a hill overlooking the city. At its core was a massive sextant, built into the ground and stretching more than 40 meters along its arc. With it, Ulugh Beg and his team of scholars charted the movement of celestial bodies with astonishing accuracy.

Premium Newsletter