The Registan is basically made up of three madrassahs, or Islamic colleges.  Each madrassah has an inner courtyard, and cell-like living quarters for students and teachers.  Now, these cells house souvenir shops. The front of Shir-Doh madrassah (below) breaks the Isalmic taboo of not representing any living thing (see the tigers and faces inside of them?)- it is thought to be a "shout out" to the previously reigining religion of Zoroastrianism (fire worship).

These three pictures were taken after climbing to the top of the minaret (prayer tower) of one of the madrassahs.  We paid a policeman $2 each ("secretly") to climb up.  And seriously, I was sore for three days!  Can you imagine having to climb up and down this thing 5 times a day!

The view from the top of the minaret.

A view from halfway up the minaret

Inside the minaret.

The woman on the left is Tajik, not Uzbek.  Samarkand is a mostly Tajik town because when the Soviets arbitrarily drew borders to make countries, they included the mostly Tajik city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan instead of in Tajikistan. I'm not sure if the man above is Uzbek or Tajik, but doesn't he just look cool???