A 7500 mile journey across Asia along the old Silk Road

Lots of natural light in the Ismail Samani Mausoleum thanks to these windows. The Samanid dynasty was a Sunni Iranian empire which ruled from 819 to 999. At its greatest extent it encompassed the whole of today's Afghanistan, and large parts of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstand, Kazakstan and Pakistan.