Bibi Khanym Mosque : The legend says that Bibi Khanym, Timur’s wife, built this mosque. Who thought she could surprise her husband with a colossal monument on his return from his Indian Campaign. Instead he was surprised by a love-bite in her neck, left there by the mosques Persian architect. Timur sent a platoon to capture the architect dead or alive, but he fled up the minaret he had just built, leapt over the top and flew home to Persia . . . . .
But the truth is that it was Timur’s own idea to build this mosque and he wanted it to be bigger then anything he had seen on his travels. The Bibi Khanym complex had been completed in an almighty rush and started crumbling even before Timur’s dead the following year. An earthquake in the 17th century destroyed more than half of it. In 1974 the reconstruction began and they are still working on it.
From journal Silk Road trip