Short answers, pulled from the story.
Researchers at the Institute of Archaeology of Samarkand date the city's founding to around 700 BC, making it among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia. Archaeological evidence of human activity at sites within the city limits dates back forty thousand years to the Upper Paleolithic.
Alexander the Great conquered Samarkand, then known as Maracanda, in 329 BC as part of his broader campaign into Central Asia. The city was the capital of the Sogdian satrapy within the Persian Achaemenid Empire, making it a strategically vital prize on the route between Europe, Persia, and China.
In 1370, Timur made Samarkand the capital of his Timurid Empire and over the next thirty-five years rebuilt most of the city, populating it with artisans and craftsmen from across his conquests. His most celebrated construction is the Gur-e Amir mausoleum, decorated with mosaic faience tiles arranged to spell out the words 'Muhammad' and 'Allah.' Timur used urban planning as a tool of political legitimation, and the city's population reached about 150,000 during his reign.
The Registan was Samarkand's ancient central square, bounded by three monumental religious buildings. Ulugh Beg's madrasah, built between 1417 and 1420, was the first structure in the architectural ensemble that became the Registan. Ulugh Beg used his madrasah to gather astronomers and mathematicians from across the Islamic world.
According to legend, during Abbasid rule the secret of papermaking was obtained from two Chinese prisoners captured at the Battle of Talas in 751 AD. This led to the foundation of the first paper mill in the Islamic world at Samarkand, and the technology then spread through the broader Islamic world before reaching Europe.
Uzbek is the official state language of Samarkand, but various independent sources indicate that Tajik, a dialect of Persian, is the most common native tongue, spoken by an estimated 70 percent of residents. Russian functions as a widely used second language in the public sphere. Other languages spoken in the city include Ukrainian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Tatar, and Arabic.