Uzbekistan

Bukhara

Bukhara is a "Star of the Muslim world". The city locates in the South-West of Uzbekistan, 280km from Samarkand. The holiest city in Central Asia had 360 mosques and 80 madrassahs while on from which the sun shone, upwards while on ordinary cities it shone down. It is about 2500 years old. The traditional founder of the city has always been the Persian prince Siyavush who built a citadel here shortly after marrying the daughter of Afrasiab in Samarkand. But its growth has for centuries depended largely upon its strategic location, uniquely placed on the crossroads to Merv, Gurganj, Herat, Kabul, and Samarkand. There are more than 140 architectural monuments that make the history of Bukhara more astonishing than rest of Uzbek cities. Bukhara's monuments are the great heritage of the Islamic world and culture.

The Ark (18- beginning of the 20th century)
The Ark is the place where you find the ruler's 2000-year old fortress. The Ark became a city within a city, housing in the 18th century the police department, prison, mint, treasury, armory, its own mosques and a population of 3000, as well as the royal apartments, reception rooms and stables. Home to the rulers of Bukhara for over a millenium, the Ark is as old as Bukhara itself. The first fortress to be docu-mented by local historians was built in the seventh century by the Bukhar Khudat Bidun. The Ark finally began to take its present form in the 16th century under the Uzbek Shaybanids and all its present buildings date from the last three centuries.

Mausoleum of Bakhautdin Naqshband (14 cent.)
It is in the east of Bukhara in the village of sufism's more important shrines, the birthplace and the tomb of Bakhautdin Naqshband, the 14 cent. founder of the most influential of many ancient Sufi orders in Central Asia and Bukhara's unofficial "patron Saint". The huge main dome of the complex covers 16 cent. khanaku. Khan Abdul Aziz II built a vault over the grave and a carved marble fence round it in 1544. Outside the courtyard is the so - called "Wishing Tree", the dead trunk of an ancient mulberry tree linked by legeunds to Barkhautdin himself. Good luck is said to come from crawling under it three times.

Mausoleum of the Samanids (9-10 cent.)
Simplicity of composition, logic of architectural forms, unity of structural methods, and decorative devices - such are the distinguishing features of the Samanids' tombstone. the factitious property of baked brick was used to such full value and vivid representation for the first time in Bukhara, Central Asia and even in the entire middle east. Laid horizontally, vertically, at an angle, shaped like discs of rosettes, the brick formed ornamental panels and frames, making the architectural joints and interiors sand out.

Liyab-i-Khauz (16-17cent.)
Around 1620 the khan's grand vizier, Nadir Divanbegi, wanted to put a reservoir in the city center on the site. Not content with his pool, the grand vizier flanked it with two grand buildings in his own memory: the Nadir Divanbegi madrasa and khanaga, both completed around 1620. The madrasa was originally intended to be a caravanserai, but the khan inaugurated it as a madrasa. The north side of the complex is formed by the Kukeldash madrasa (1568-9), Bukhara's biggest and most austere, with 160 cells and a courtyard 80 by 60 m. the builder was Kulbaba Kukeldash, whose name means "foster-brother of the Khan".

Poi Kalon Enseble

Kalyan Minaret (1127) The nickname of the Kalyan Minaret is the Tower of Death. The first minaret here was wood-framed, and burned down. The second, built early in the Karakhanid Arslan Khan's reign, was of brick but after 'someone bewitched it with an evil eye' it fell on and largely demolished the adjacent mosque. At 47 m high, it was probably the tallest building in the world when completed in 1127. It was certainly used as a lighthouse for caravans travelling at night - a fire would be lit in the lantern.
Kalyan Mosque (1514-1515) The paved plaza at the foot of the tower is called Poi-Kalyan, "Pedestal of the Great One" and is flanked by Bukhara's two most imposing facades. One of these, moored by a bridge to the tower, belongs to the Kalyan mosque. First built in the 12th century, it was badly damaged by the Mongols and restored in 1514-15.
Mir-i-Arab Madrasa (1535) The Mir-i-Arab madrassah with the mosque Bukhara's main kosh ensemble. Under the left dome are buried Ubaydullah Khan (one of the first Bukharan royal not to have his own mausoleum) and Sheikh Mir-i-Arab after whom the madrasa is named. He is variously described as an architect, a Yemeni merchant, and "spiritual mentor of the early Sheibanids".

Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa
Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa, built mostly in the 19th century, but still being added to in 1918, is the great and only repository of "Bukhara Kitsch". Honopred guests were received in the White Hall. In the official guesthouse, discreetly separate from both palace and harem, there is a collection of royal robes which is outshone by the one.

Chashma-i-Ayub Mausoleum
It was built over a spring. Its middle domes were adder in the 14 cent., the front one in the 16th cent. and no - one was buried in it until even later. The name means "Spring of job"; legend says "job" strunk his staff on the ground here and a spring appeared. Inside you can drink from the spring and check out a little exhibit on the town's ancient waterworks.

Bolo Khauz (19th century)
The emirs worshipped in public across the Registan in its only surviving monument, the Bolo Khauz mosque. Built in 1718, with a roof extension supported by karagachi pillars added in the 19th century., its elegant west side is reflected in the 16th century khauz (pool) of its name. The minaret to the right was built in 1917.

Chor Minar (1807)
In 1807 Khalif Niyaz-Kul, a rich Turkmen merchant, built a large madrasa whose gatehouse survives in a mud streets and to the east of the Kukeldash madrasa. Chor Minar means "four minarets", but its four rounded towers never called people to prayer.