Cemeteries of Samarkand: the main sites

Samarkand is Uzbekistan's second city by concentration of historical memory. It has several independent cemeteries, each with its own community history. This article is an overview of the five main sites.

1. Old Jewish Cemetery (Mahalla Yahudi). At the foot of Hojum Hill, adjacent to the historic Jewish quarter. Several thousand graves. The Samarkand Jewish community is small but the cemetery is in active use; several rabbinic family plots are maintained continuously across generations. See Cluster 5 spoke on Samarkand Jewish.

2. Shah-i-Zinda. Historic Muslim necropolis from the 11th–15th centuries with unique mausoleums. Not an active cemetery for modern burials — an architectural monument and pilgrimage site; the tomb of Qusam ibn Abbas (cousin of the Prophet) is here. Not a search site, but essential for understanding the regional Muslim ritual.

3. Modern Muslim cemetery of Samarkand. Southern outskirts. Most Uzbek Muslim burials in modern Samarkand. Burials scheduled regularly. Partially digital archive from the 2010s.

4. Russian cemetery of Samarkand. Northern part of the city, near the Alexei of Moscow church. Open from the late 19th century with the Russian Empire. Russian settlers, Soviet-era leadership, post-Soviet Russian-speaking Samarkanders. See C1 Orthodox spoke.

5. Polish Catholic cemetery. Small, emotionally significant. See the dedicated «Polish cemetery in Samarkand» article.

6. Armenian family plots. Not a standalone cemetery — several Armenian family burials scattered across the Russian and central city cemeteries. See C1 Armenian spoke.

Search practice in Samarkand. Each cemetery has its own archive. If you don't know the cemetery, we start from the most likely by ethnicity. Search 5–10 days, 1–2 days longer than Tashkent due to multiple archive visits.