Mausoleum of Soltan Ali

Standing opposite the Mausoleum of Nedjmeddin Kubra, and forming a harmonious composition with it, is the Mausoleum of Soltan Ali. This domed building, with cracks in its exterior walls and an altogether rather parlous appearance, is one of the most puzzling of Konye-Urgench. Some researchers date it to the 14th century, others to the 16th. Soltan Ali himself, to whom the building may, or may not, have been dedicated, was a local governor who died in 1565. The building was never completed: the wooden beams protruding from the facade may have been required for decorative tiling, which was not in the event applied. One theory runs that the building was commissioned by Soltan Ali's successor, one Haji Mohammed Khan, who was forced to flee Urgench in the 1580s by the advance of the forces of the Khan of Bukhara. The building is usually kept locked. The portals of the Mausolea of Nedjmeddin Kubra and Soltan Ali suggest two elderly gentlemen, politely bowing to each other.