3-006-969 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

General view of the Shakh-i Zindeh mosque, Samarkand, between 1905 and 1915. The Pamir Mountains provide a dramatic backdrop for an evening view of the Shakh-i Zindeh Mosque in Samarkand, a complex of graves and mortuary chapels built over many centuries for the women of the dynasties descended from Timur (Tamerlane, 1336-1405), the great medieval ruler of Central Asia. Russian chemist and photographer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky (1863-1944) was a pioneer in colour photography which he used to document early 20th-century Russia and her empire, including the vanishing way of life of tribal peoples along the Silk Route in Central Asia. In a railway-carriage darkroom provided by Czar Nicholas II, Prokudin-Gorsky used the three-colour photography process to record traditional costumes and occupations, churches and mosques - many now Unesco World Heritage sites - as well as modernisation in agriculture, industry and transport.