The revered sites in the vicinity of Urgut share a common feature: the presence of a spring with pure water at the very center of the sanctuary, surrounded by the towering trees that grow along its banks. In the extremely hot and arid climate of the region, most mountain streams completely dry up by the beginning of summer. Therefore, a constant source of drinking water, which can also be used for irrigating the surrounding gardens and fields, is naturally regarded by the people as a gift from the heavens.
In the early centuries following the spread of Islam in Central Asia, most shrines of the former religion—Zoroastrianism—were subjected to total destruction, to the extent that even the memory of them faded from the people’s consciousness. However, the springs and sacred groves managed to escape this sad fate. Muslims required pure water not only for drinking and irrigating the land but also for the obligatory ablutions performed before prayer. Folk traditions that connected these sites with ancient pagan cults practiced long before the preaching of Zoroaster were gradually replaced by pious legends about the miraculous deeds of Quranic figures or the lives of Muslim ascetics.
The cult complex of Chor-Chinor (which literally means “Four Chinars”) in Urgut boasts a legendary history dating back to the 9th century. According to legend, one of the Arab commanders participated in the final establishment of Islam in the vicinity of Samarkand. His name was Khoja Abu Talib, nicknamed Sarmast, or “The Intoxicated,” and he was appointed the ruler of Urgut. It is believed that he planted the very four chinar trees (also known as plane trees) around the spring.
Abu Talib was a kind and just ruler who lived a long and righteous life, passing away in 866 and being buried at the foot of these trees. According to the account of the 19th-century Samarkand scholar Abu Tahir Khoja Sadri, in the 18th and 19th centuries, a certain Kattabek Divanbegi, a local ruler, erected a madrasa in the eastern part of Khoja Abu Talib’s burial site.
However, the Chor-Chinor grove did not cease to be a cultic site even during the Soviet era. The last historical gravestone within it belongs to the grandson of Valikhan Ismailkhodja, the scholar and theologian Sheikh Qutbiddinkhan Mukiddinov (1906-1983). Sheikh Qutbiddinkhan maintained friendly relations with the state leaders of Soviet Uzbekistan—Akmal Ikramov and Faizulla Khojaev—and with the classic of Uzbek literature, writer Gafur Gulyam. During the Stalinist repressions of the 1930s, the sheikh was arrested twice and once sentenced to death, but somehow he survived. When the sheikh passed away in 1983, the residents of Urgut demanded that he be buried in the Chor-Chinor grove next to his grandfather’s grave. The authorities dared not refuse the people’s request.
After Uzbekistan gained independence in 1991, the Chor-Chinor grove regained its status as a memorial complex and also became a popular tourist attraction in the Samarkand region. A decade later, the grove transformed into a significant sanctuary, deeply revered not only by local residents but also by numerous pilgrims from various regions of Uzbekistan. The grove resembles a single arboreal bowl, where dozens of giant chinar trees, with trunks several spans wide, are densely intertwined with their powerful roots protruding from the ground. The largest trees are equipped with plaques indicating their actual or legendary ages—ranging from 800 to 1200 years. This is entirely plausible, as in other regions of the world, there are plane trees whose proven ages reach 2300 years.
Visit Timur’s birthplace, Shakhrisabz
Explore Ak-Saray Palace ruins
Visit Timur’s father’s burial vault
Admire Kok-Gumbaz Mosque
Scenic drive from Samarkand