The Ulugh Beg Observatory is an observatory in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Built in the 1420s by the Timurid astronomer Ulugh Beg, it is considered by scholars to have been one of the finest observatories in the Islamic world.
Only part of the sextant and the foundation of the Ulugh Beg Observatory in Samarkand have been preserved. The location of this observatory was discovered in 1908, when Russian archaeologist Viatken discovered an endowment document that stated the observatory's exact location.
Ulugh Beg was been assassinated in 1449, by religious extremists. Ulugh Beg's observatory was also destroyed by religious fanatics in 1449.
As Heather Hobden notes:
“The library of 15,000 books was looted, and the scholars driven out of Samarkand. The religious leaders declared the hill on which the observatory had stood, was the burial place of ‘forty maidens’. They built a mausoleum to these ‘forty maidens’ on this site and turned it into a lucrative centre for pilgrimage, hoping by this means to utterly destroy the memory of the observatory”
But parts of the site remained despite this. While working at the excavation site, Viatken found one of the most important astronomical instruments used at the observatory: a large arch that had been used to determine midday.
The archaeological findings also showed that the building was cylindrical in shape, with an elaborate, well-designed interior. Using the dome of the observatory, astronomers developed the Ulugh Beg Tables, which are considered one of the most accurate astronomical tables in the world.
The dome had inscriptions that marked the degrees, minutes, seconds, and tenths of a second of the epicycles, the seven planets, and the fixed stars, as well as the earth and its regions, mountains, and deserts.
Among the astronomers who worked at this observatory was Ghiyath Ad-Din Al-Khashi, who excelled in mechanical modeling of celestial movement.
The discoveries and research conducted at Ulugh Beg Observatory were very important at the time as astronomers could predict eclipses and calculate the hour of the rising sun and altitude of a celestial body, and meant their hypothesis of a stellar year was rather accurate, at 365 days, 6 hours, 10 minutes and 8 seconds, only about 1 minute longer than the modern electronic calculations!
Only part of the sextant and the foundation of the Ulugh Beg Observatory in Samarkand have been preserved. The location of this observatory was discovered in 1908, when Russian archaeologist Viatken discovered an endowment document that stated the observatory's exact location.
Ulugh Beg was been assassinated in 1449, by religious extremists. Ulugh Beg's observatory was also destroyed by religious fanatics in 1449.
As Heather Hobden notes:
“The library of 15,000 books was looted, and the scholars driven out of Samarkand. The religious leaders declared the hill on which the observatory had stood, was the burial place of ‘forty maidens’. They built a mausoleum to these ‘forty maidens’ on this site and turned it into a lucrative centre for pilgrimage, hoping by this means to utterly destroy the memory of the observatory”
But parts of the site remained despite this. While working at the excavation site, Viatken found one of the most important astronomical instruments used at the observatory: a large arch that had been used to determine midday.
The archaeological findings also showed that the building was cylindrical in shape, with an elaborate, well-designed interior. Using the dome of the observatory, astronomers developed the Ulugh Beg Tables, which are considered one of the most accurate astronomical tables in the world.
The dome had inscriptions that marked the degrees, minutes, seconds, and tenths of a second of the epicycles, the seven planets, and the fixed stars, as well as the earth and its regions, mountains, and deserts.
Among the astronomers who worked at this observatory was Ghiyath Ad-Din Al-Khashi, who excelled in mechanical modeling of celestial movement.
The discoveries and research conducted at Ulugh Beg Observatory were very important at the time as astronomers could predict eclipses and calculate the hour of the rising sun and altitude of a celestial body, and meant their hypothesis of a stellar year was rather accurate, at 365 days, 6 hours, 10 minutes and 8 seconds, only about 1 minute longer than the modern electronic calculations!