Central Asia has a rich architectural heritage from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries. Both the Mughal Empire in India and the Mongol Empire in northern Central Asia have left distinctive architectural traces which shed a new light on the development of urban space in this era. City planning was important, and new architectural methods were developed in religious architecture (for example, mosques, religious schools, and hospices) and civic architecture (such as trading complexes, baths, caravanserais, and bridges).