The name Samarkand

A beautiful and very sad legend explains the origin of the name of Samarkand.

The story is about two young lovers. The girl was called Kant (“sugar”) and she was the king’s daughter. Instead, the boy, whose name was Samar, belonged to a poor family.
They fell in love with each other but when Kant’s father knew that Samar was poor, he rejected the possibility of their marriage and had the boy killed. On hearing that, Samar killed herself by jumping off the castle roof.
Overwhelmed with sadness, the people of the city decided to change its name and call it Samarkand, to honour the two sweethearts.