Sultan Sanjar Mausoleum

also known as 'Dar-al-Akhyre" (" The Other World"). It vividly reflects the greatest achievements and prosperity of Seljuks. Sultan Sanjar Mausoleum is located in the center of ancient settlement of Sultan-Kala. Nearby there are big monumental buildings - the palaces of Seljuk rulers and a mosque.
Sultan Sanjar Mausoleum is a true medieval skyscraper of cubic shape crowned by a two-level dome with turquoise encasement. Under the dome run three-level through galleries in the form of alternating openwork arches. The dome symbolized the firmament and "floated" in the air. The architecture of Sultan Sanjar Mausoleum amazes with harmony and symmetry of proportions. Its walls are thick at the base. The overall wall length is 27 meters . The height of the mausoleum is 38 m .

the Seljuk Empire, and its turquoise dome so magnificent, that Silk Road caravans could spot it while they were still a full day`s march away across the southern Karakum Desert.  
But the Arabian inscription on its facade says: "This place is ennobled by the remains of the one who was called Sultan Sanjar from the descendants of Turks-Seljuks... He was Alexander the Great of his time; he was the patron of scientists and poets and was accepted by Islamic world in the state of prosperity and happiness owing to sciences and arts".
The mausoleum is a place of pilgrimage of thousands of believers let alone the у fact that it is the main attraction for foreign tourists

Right - MAUSOLEUM of SULTAN SANJAR
(mid-12 th century)

square crowned by a large dome nearly 18 meters in diameter. Arched corner galleries along the upper story maintain a stark rectangular profile while concealing the squinches that mark the cube's transition to the dome. The gallery façade's alternate pointed-arch and triangular-arch bays create solid-void compositions that harmonize with two rows of blind arches along the dome's base. Miniature turrets along each corner above the gallery once facilitated the cube-to-dome transition, but were lost over time.

The dome was restored in 1911, and the galleries were largely rebuilt in recent decades. Unfortunately, much of the twelfth-century terracotta ornament is feared to have been lost in insensitive reconstruction projects during the 1990s. The monument and the cultural park of ancient Merv was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999. World attention and increased tourist inflow have guaranteed better upkeep of the structure.

on the east and west elevations. Plaster carved to simulate brick bonds and inset with terracotta panels decorates some brick facades. The elevations also exhibit traces of stucco treatment and holes left behind by scaffolding erected for repeated restoration efforts. The galleries are elaborately adorned with terracotta patterns in arch intrados and alternate panels of carved brickwork. The outer dome was once embellished with turquoise tiles, but only its interior's exposed, interlaced structural ribs exist today. These trace a central eight-pointed star motif within the dome's eye, surrounded by a radial series of foiled arches and stalactite-topped pilasters.