The necropolis of Shah-i Zindah (Persian for “living king”), located within a cemetery on the outskirts of Samarkand, was revered as a memorial to Kusam-ibn-Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet Mohammad. This detailed view of steppe poppies was taken on a hillside near the Shah-i Zindah complex in late spring, when the flowers are in profuse bloom. The necropolis itself is beyond the frame of this photograph. The image is by Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863–1944), who used a special color photography process to create a visual record of the Russian Empire in the early 20th century. He frequently used his photographic method to record local flora. Some of Prokudin-Gorskii’s photographs date from about 1905, but the bulk of his work is from between 1909 and 1915, when, with the support of Tsar Nicholas II and the Ministry of Transportation, he undertook extended trips through many different parts of the empire. Prokudin-Gorskii was particularly interested in recently acquired territories of the Russian Empire such as Turkestan (present-day Uzbekistan and neighboring states), which he visited on a number of occasions, including two trips in 1911. He gave special attention to the Islamic architecture of Samarkand (present-day Uzbekistan), such as 14th and 15th-century monuments from the reign of Timur (Tamerlane) and his successors.