My parents on our last day in Uzbekistan outside Tamerlane's tomb in Samarkand. It was my father's birthday the day before and he's proudly sporting a birthday gift from our driver, a tiubeteika (an Uzbek hat) and an Uzbek sash. Tamerlane (also known as Timur) made Samarkand into a lavish capital in the 14th century. Despite a bloody reign, Tamerlane is revered today by the Uzbeks as a kind of national hero.