Quick search
CTRL+K
Quick search
CTRL+K
Bukhara is a magnificent city that is one of the highlights of the historic Silk Road that linked Europe with Asia. The trade routes passed through Central Asia, and Bukhara was one of the most important cities on the route through present-day Uzbekistan. To this day you can enjoy a lot of the Silk Road history in the magnificent sights in the city center.
Bukhara is located in the middle of the desert, and out of almost nowhere a beautiful city rises, where some of the world’s most beautiful Islamic buildings can be seen. The silhouette consists of not least the Kalyan Minaret as a landmark with a number of the distinctive light blue domes surrounding it. The domes and other architectural highlights of the city are mainly religious works such as mosques, minarets and madrasas.
Bukhara Ark is an amazing building from the historical time when Bukhara’s emir ruled the city and the emirate of the area. The Ark was the political center, while the religious center is close by in the form of the Kalyan Minaret complex as the centerpiece.
Bukhara is also the city of caravans, and it shows itself in the city’s shopping center, where the many domed historical shopping centers and inns continue to stand where the present-day commercial streets meet. Silk, jewelery, spices and much more were traded in these halls, which continue to function as arcades. There are also numerous caravansarais, which offered accommodation for the caravans. Many of these are today workshops and restaurants.
Bukhara Ark is a large fort that has been on this site in various versions since the 4th century and probably a long time before. Over time, the fort played a military role, but at the same time it was also designed as a small town that formed a residence for the changing rulers of the times.
The current fort was built of earth on top of earlier structures, indicating that there had already been some sort of fortress on the site. The origin is therefore not known with certainty, but in the 5th century the place was already established as the seat of local rulers. Thus the emir lived here with viziers, military leaders and various servants.
The residents and workers had large spaces to live in. The dimensions are indeed impressive at Bukhara Ark, whose perimeter measures just under 800 meters with an area of approximately 4 hectares behind the 16-20 meter high walls, between which the entire interior of the fort was raised on a plateau. The natural plateau can easily be seen from the east and particularly from the north, where rocks form a significant part of the fort’s wall.
Over time, Bukhara Ark has been destroyed and rebuilt quite a few times. Already in the 9th century there were depictions of these destructions and new buildings, which were repeated in later centuries. This happened, for example, with the invasion of the Mongols in the 13th century, when Bukhara’s inhabitants protected themselves behind the fort’s walls. However, the Mongol army overcame the defenses and looted and ravaged the facility.
More recently, the Bukhara Ark was destroyed in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917. A well-equipped Soviet army unit under the command of Mikhail Frunze attacked and captured Bukhara from the emir, who fled first to Dushanbe and then to Afghanistan, living in Kabul for his died in 1944. Among other things, air raids were carried out against the fort, which was largely destroyed on that occasion. Theories also suggest that the emir blew up parts of the fort’s facilities during his escape. In any case, the result was that approximately 80% of the complex was destroyed, and that you therefore only get a small glimpse of the historic Bukhara Ark on a visit today.
As a residence, there were apartments for the emir and his wives, a harem, a mosque, offices, stables and other things in connection with the emir’s and thus the state’s administration. A large part does not exist today, and among other things, the wooden buildings burned during the fighting in 1920.
You can visit the fort, whose solid walls are beautifully restored. The entrance is through the large double-towered gate building to the west, called the Registan Gate. From here, under the canopy, music was played to entertain the people in the large square in front of Registan. At Registan, whose name means a sandy place, several historical events took place, such as the city’s public executions.
Behind the Registan Gate, you first go up an inner corridor, from which emirs and the chief of police were the only ones who had access to a special riding corridor that led to the stables and the shortest route to the emir’s residence. The riding corridor is on the right, and opposite it are cells from one of the prisons of the time. In the cells, respectively, there was sand, water and insects, and with public access to the facility, the vision acted as a preventive measure for the city’s citizens in relation to any criminal acts.
Straight ahead on the road through the Registan Gate you come to Bukhara Ark’s preserved mosque, which today forms the setting for an exhibition of calligraphy. You can of course also see the interior of the mosque. The mosque was built on the initiative of one of Bukhara’s crown princes.
From the mosque the road turns towards three things; the facility’s stables, the emir’s throne room and the emir’s apartments. However, on the left side of the road in an alley was the vizier’s office. You had to pass here to obtain permission if you wanted to see the emir. On the right side were the emir’s stables, sayisxona hovlisi. In the stables there were several horses, which the emir used in turn. At the site today you can enjoy the view from the top of the fort’s walls to the square Registan.
On the opposite side of the stables is the Coronation Hall/Marosimxhona, which was furnished in the 17th century. The first thing you encounter is a wall. To this, ordinary citizens could go daily and openly say what they thought about the emir, the system or anything else that was on their mind. In this way, the people could have an outlet for any aggressions, while the emir could listen to what problems the people had. The wall thus had a stabilizing political function.
Behind the wall you can see the very place where the emirs of Bukhara were crowned. The ceremony was last performed in 1911 with the enthronement of the last emir. The emir entered under the canopy, the ayvan, wearing a golden suit, and here he was carried up onto the central marble stone, which was covered with white camel skin for the occasion. After this he was officially the new emir. In the hall, which is actually a farm, coins were otherwise minted, and below street level were the emir’s three treasuries with respectively gold and silver, copper coins and silk carpets.
If you continue along the fort’s main street, you come to the audience yard, where the emir could be visited every morning. The emir sat in the middle window of the courtyard and had people who partially answered for him. The people could ask the emir about special things, and vice versa, it was here that the emir could tell news about legislation or other things and hand out the task, the status of which was asked at later audiences.
From the audience courtyard there is access to the Bukhara Ark museum, located in the preserved parts of the emir’s residence. In the museum there are historical depictions, handicrafts, weapons, money, instruments, costumes and more. For example, you can see some of the emir’s suits, and pictures of the last emir show a very powerful man. This was not due to obesity, but rather that the emir wore eight suits to appear large and imposing.
This madrassa was built in the years 1588-1590, and it stands as a beautiful example of contemporary Koranic schools in Bukhara. The richly decorated and tall facade with the so-called guldasta or small towers in the corners contrasts with the 15th-century madrassas under Ulugh Bek. These were more spartanly decorated and with minarets in the corners.
The Abdullah-Khan Madrassa is one of Bukhara’s largest Koranic schools, and it is worth seeing the beautiful mosaics, which, according to tradition, are built up as stylized geometric patterns.
Khoja Gaukushan is a building complex that belongs among the larger ones in Bukhara. Around one of the city’s historic water supply basins lie a mosque, Koranic schools and a minaret, surpassed only by the Kalyan Minaret in the Uzbek metropolis. The place is almost only a few meters’ walk from Bukhara’s tourist quarter, and yet here breathes a high degree of peace in an idyll.
Gaukushon Madrassa/Gaukushon madrasasi is a Koranic school in the area, and it was built in 1562-1566. The school was built with the shape of a trapezoid, which was a deviation from the normal rectangular shape. This was due to the surrounding streets, and thus the perspective of the inner courtyard is slightly different from the majority of Koranic schools.
In the years 1573-1579, the Khodja Kalon Mosque/Xo’ja Kalon masjidi was built, and together with the Gaukushon Madrassa, these two form the most important elements in the ensemble of religious buildings.
Immediately opposite the Khoja Kalon Mosque and on the opposite side of the water basin, you can see the smaller Koranic school Abdurakhmoni Alam Madrassa/Abduraxmoni A’lam madrasasi. The school was built in the 1800s, which makes it somewhat newer than the other buildings on the site.
Bolo Hauz Mosque is a beautiful 18th-century mosque that was the place of worship for Bukhara’s emirs and their entourage. It is architecturally worth seeing and for both its role for the emirs and as a preserved mosque complex with prayer house, minaret and water basin.
The pool is older than the mosque, and it is one of the only such pools preserved in present-day Bukhara. The presence of the pool has given its name to the place, whose Uzbek name refers to the children’s pool. It is particularly atmospheric when Bolo Hauz’s minerat and ayvan are reflected in the water.
The Bolo Hauz Mosque was built in 1712 as a royal place of worship on the initiative of the Emir’s mother. The central location in Bukhara opposite the Ark Fort and Registan Square quickly made the mosque well-visited by the public. Up to and including the city’s last emir, who sat until 1920, the mosque was used for the Muslim Friday prayer, where the emir could in a short time go from his residence in Bukhara Ark to the mosque, which was continuously decorated in, for example, the beautiful ayvan, which is the gallery with the great colonnade. Officially, the mosque was not the mosque for Friday prayers, but it was the easiest to get to for the emir, and therefore it almost got this status.
Modari-Khan Madrassa is a Koranic school built in 1566-1567 in honor of Abdullah Khan II’s mother, as evidenced by the place’s name, which means mother of the khan.
The building is characterized by an elegantly decorated portal facade and a ground plan that does not have the traditional rectangular shape. This is due to the surrounding roads and the result was a trapezoid.
The madrassa was decorated with beautiful majolica tiles, and in addition you can see an interior that is quite normal for Koranic schools. The two floors of housing and schoolrooms which are niches around the central courtyard create a harmonious building which, together with the Abdullah Khan Madrassa opposite, forms a double ensemble; kosh madrassa.
The early history of this mausoleum is not known, but an inscription suggests that it was built under Amir Temur and thus in the decades around the year 1400. It commemorates Job of Bukhara, who held an administrative position as a water distributor in the city. With scarce water, it was obviously an important position.
Chashmai-Ayub means Job’s Spring, and according to a local legend, the biblical Job visited the place and either the water of the spring cured him of diseases, or he caused a spring of healing water to spring. The historical account, however, is that Job of Bukhara distributed water from the spring that is found inside the mausoleum to this day. On the site he had his administration and people came here to buy water.
In memory of Job’s work and the development of the water supply, the mausoleum was built as a memorial. Today you can also see the Bukhara Museum of Water Distribution/Buxoro suv Ta’minoti Tarixi Muzeyi in the mausoleum. At the museum there is an exhibition of effects and a fine description of the development of the city’s water supply. Historically, a river flowed through the city, but during an earthquake, the water’s path shifted to a place many kilometers from Bukhara.
A canal was built between the new bed of the river and Bukhara, which was thus supplied with water again. The canal’s water was distributed through many basins dug all over Bukhara. These are still seen in quite a few places in the city; among others at the nearby Ismail Samani Mausoleum.
Today, Chashmai-Ayub stands at the Samonid Recreation Park, which was previously laid out as a larger cemetery. It is a harmonious building, the main characteristic of which is the conical dome that rises like a tent over the mausoleum.
Directly opposite Chashmai-Ayub you can see a relatively newly constructed memorial in the form of a building. It is a memorial complex to Imam al-Bukhari named Imom al-Buxoriy Xotira Majmuasi.
Buxoro Dehqon bozori is the name of Bukhara’s large market with food and other products. With the climate and lushness of Uzbekistan, the market abounds in season, and here are apricots, peaches, figs, pomegranates, melons and much more, which are very inviting. Besides buying and tasting the goods, a visit to the market is also exciting with the atmosphere of liveliness that is always here.
Kalyan Mosque has the status of a cathedral mosque, which has been the case since its construction in the 16th century. However, the mosque was not active as such during the Soviet period in the 20th century. Kalyan Mosque replaced an earlier mosque from the 12th century, and its dimensions and interior make an impressive impression.
Kalyan Mosque is used today as a Friday mosque, making it the most important of Bukhara’s mosques. Large parts of the facility, which includes both an inner courtyard and many covered vaults, are open and therefore not an official part of the mosque. Here you can get an insight into the composition of the impressive building. At the western end of the courtyard, Genghis Khan is believed to have executed several hundred supplicants.
Ulugh Bek Madrassa is one of Bukhara’s best-known Koranic schools, and it is one of the three founded by the politician and scientist Ulugh Bek in the 15th century. The other two were built in the cities of Gijduvan and Samarkand.
The madrassa in Bukhara was built in 1417 by Ismail ibn Isfaghani at the initiative of Mirzo Ulugh Bek. It is classically furnished with two floors with study rooms and living spaces around the central courtyard. Added to this is the finely decorated gate building, the so-called iwan.
Ulugh Bek Madrassa stands as a fine example of the contemporary style and thereby of the buildings during the Timurid dynasty. For example, you can compare the style with the neighboring building Abdulaziz Khan Madrassa, which is more richly decorated and built during the later Ashtarkhanid dynasty. Abdulaziz Khan Madrassa together with Ulugh Bek Madrassa forms the so-called Kosh Madrassa complex; kosh means double.
A well-known part of the decoration is the verse by Ulugh Bek, in which he calls on all Muslim men and women to seek knowledge and wisdom, realizing as a scientist that this was the way forward to develop society. Today, the historic Koran school serves as a museum of the history of Bukhara’s historical buildings and their restoration.
Chor Minor, which means four minarets in Tajik, is a remarkable entrance building to a defunct Koranic school. Chor Minor Madrassa was built in 1806-1807 by a wealthy merchant from Bukhara, and his house was close to Chor Minor.
The entrance to the merchant’s madrassa was the four-towered and richly decorated building that can be seen today. The merchant was architecturally inspired by trade journeys in India and to the west, and the result was the beautiful towers and associated complex.
Before the demolition of the Koran school itself, the facility also consisted of a mosque, a pool and the madrassa in a harmonious architectural complex. Today you can see excavated ruins of the facility, and in Chor Minor there is access to a snail’s passage that brings you up to the roof of the building and thereby to a fine view. In Chor Minor itself is a shop with traditional handicrafts from Bukhara, which, among other things, consists of embroideries with motifs of pomegranates.
The city of Kagan lies southeast of Bukhara itself, and it was formerly called Ny Bukhara/Новая Бухара, when it was established as the center of diplomacy of the Imperial Russian administration with the Emir of Bukhara in the 1800s. The Russian planning of trade routes and administration in the Central Asian area happened not least along the railways that developed the regions.
In Bukhara, the railway was laid with a station in the town of Kagan, which quickly grew with housing for the people of the railway, an Orthodox church, customs and banking authorities. Thus, Kagan developed into the Russian center in Bukhara, whose emir started the construction of a new castle here in 1894. The castle was completed in 1898, designed by Alexei Benoit, and it is today Kagan’s greatest attraction.
The railway station in Bukhara is still located in Kagan, which got its current name in the 1930s. As part of the renewal of the Uzbek railway network, the high-speed Afroisyob train is also coming to Kagan, and in connection with this, a large new railway station building is being constructed.
Gijduvan is a smaller city in the Bukhara region. Gijduvan is known for being an enterprising trading town with many talented artisans, whose pottery stands as probably the most famous part. You can thus visit workshops where ceramics are produced and hand painted according to traditional methods and patterns.
In terms of buildings, Gijduvan is the place where the famous theologian from the 12th century, Abdulkhalik Gijduvani, is buried. It has come about that the scientist and king Ulugh Bek founded and built one of his three famous madrassas here. The other two are located in Bukhara and Samarkand respectively.
Ulugh Bek was unusual in that he became king with a background as a skilled scientist, and knowledge was the reason for the establishment of his schools. Here, students had to strive for new knowledge, and the facilities themselves were classically built with two floors, one of which was housing for students, and the other was designed as classrooms.
The madrassa in Gijduvan was built from 1437, and it still stands beautifully in Gijduvan’s central square. Over time, the top floor of the Koranic school has disappeared, which happened after one of the many earthquakes that have shaken Central Asia over time.
Next to Ulugh Bek’s madrassa, you can see a beautiful minaret that was built with strong inspiration from the well-known Kalyan Minaret in Bukhara. The minaret here in Gijduvan is however somewhat smaller than the one in Bukhara. Next to the minaret is the local mosque.
Samarkand is a city that exudes a great atmosphere taken from the history books about the Silk Road and Amir Timur’s great kingdom. All over the city there are magnificent traces of the ruler’s time in the form of beautiful Islamic style buildings, and some of Central Asia’s finest architecture can be enjoyed in the Uzbek city.
Registan is the centerpiece of the Samarkand that has been inscribed in UNESCO’s World Heritage list for many years. Registan is the most famous place in Uzbekistan and perhaps even throughout Central Asia. Three spectacular madrasas stand around the square, each lavishly decorated with the familiar blue tiles in rich variations in their geometrical patterns.
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and largest city in Central Asia, and a visit here is a mix of historical sights, modern buildings and true metropolitan experiences. Ever since the Silk Road, the place has been an important strategic location on the caravans’ routes between China and Europe, and historically Tashkents role as a meeting place made it prosperous.
Tashkent is a metropolis whose neighborhoods and grand squares are connected by the subway from the time of the Soviet Union, which in itself is an attraction with contemporary designed stations in local style and inspiration. The city plan above the metro is characterized by wide streets and boulevards and large squares in the new district dating from the Russian and Soviet times.
Sulaymon Murodov ko’chasi
Mustaqillik ko’chasi
Khodja Nurobobod ko’chasi
Khakikat ko’chasi
Khodja Nurobobod ko’chasi, Bahouddin Naqshbandi ko’chasi, Khakikat ko’chasi
Samoniylar istirohat bogi, Afrosiyob ko’chasi
Nodir Devon Begi madrasasi
Mekhtar Anbar ko’chasi
Bukhara is one of the ancient cities of Central Asia with a history dating back several thousand years in time. Archaeologically, the city can at least date back to the year 500 BC, where there was a settlement on the present Bukhara Ark. However, as an oasis in the desert, Bukhara was already inhabited before this, and it is believed that there were many dwellings along the river Zarafshan. Around the year 700 BC the Sogdian culture emerged, and in the year 500 BC several settlements had been gathered at the Bukhara Ark, where a wall was also established, and thus what became Bukhara arose.
At the beginning of Bukhara, the area was subject to the Persian Empire as a vassal state. Later Macedonian Alexander the Great came in the 300s BC. during his campaign from the Balkans to the east, and Greek culture came naturally enough to make its mark on Bukhara.
In the city there were also temples, and Bukhara was a cult site for worship of the goddess Anahita. Part of that culture was that many pilgrims did this at repeated festivals, and this provided the foundation for the development of the trade that has left a great mark on the city throughout Bukhara’s history. Archaeological finds of the time include gold coins that emphasize Bukhara’s then international trade status.
Central Asian trade has always been associated with the Silk Road between Europe and China, and following the Chinese Han Dynasty’s securing of the route in the 200s BC. it flourished to new heights.
Bukhara was strategically well situated on the Silk Road, and here a real market emerged that further developed the already wealthy city. The caravans’ trade in silk, not least, grew and gave Bukhara new economic capacity in the coming centuries.
This positive situation lasted until the mid-300s, when Bukhara was subject to a regime of Mongolian tribes. It came down to the recession of Bukhara, which, however, experienced population growth and increased activity in the area from the following century.
In the 500-600s, several religious directions were represented in Bukhara. It mainly concerned manicism and a form of Christianity.
Muslim armies invaded the Central Asian region of Bukhara around the year 650, bringing with them Islam. As a city, Bukhara was multicultural and multireligious, and neither Islam nor Arab rule prevailed until the mid-700s. Crucial was the Battle of Talas in 751, which made the Arabs rulers of Bukhara. With the Muslim rule, Islam gradually gained ground and became the dominant religion.
After the Battle of Talas, Islam became increasingly dominant, as did the Arabs with whom Islam had joined. That changed in 850 when Bukhara became the capital of the Sami empire with Ismail Samani as the first ruler; one can continue to admire his mausoleum in Bukhara.
With the Sami people came a Persian influence in terms of both culture and language, and Bukhara rivaled Baghdad as the area’s most important city. During the Persian Sami times, Bukhara became the cultural and intellectual center of the Islamic world, and of course its character and development in the city.
In the 9th century, Bukhara was one of the world’s largest cities with a population of about 300,000. Only cities like Baghdad and Cairo had similar size. Prominent Islamists worked from here and, more generally, this was a heyday in Bukhara’s history. The time of the Samanids as rulers ended in 999 with the takeover of the Turkish Karakanids.
After the era of the Sami, Bukhara became part of the Turkish state of the Karakanids, but that did not slow down the development of the city. It was Aslan Khan, for example, who, as a karakanid ruler, ordered the construction of the famous Kalyan Minaret. The minaret was a contemporary architectural masterpiece.
New times and new leaders emerged over the following centuries, and the best known is the destruction and conquest of Bukhara by Genghis Khan in 1220. The Mongols introduced a new government, which included, among other things, officials from China to secure the administration of the Muslim population in Central Asia.
Genghis Khan’s successors ruled the Mongolian kingdom until the warlord Timur in the 1300s overcame the rule and created his own great kingdom based on nearby Samarkand. Bukhara was conquered in 1363.
Timur created a kingdom that stretched from present-day Turkey to India and from the Arabian Sea to the areas north of Kazakhstan. He was descended from Mongol warriors, and he considered himself a descendant and heir to Genghis Khan.
Timur died in 1405, and his Timurid dynasty ruled the Uzbek area until the beginning of the 16th century. It came as a unified kingdom until Ulugh Bek’s reign. Ulugh Bek was a scientist, and he became king with a focus on learning; which is a visible sign of this he founded three Qur’anic schools, one of which can still be seen in Bukhara. Later, the kingdom was divided, and local rulers came, for example, in Bukhara and Samarkand.
The new rulers of Bukhara founded a khanate with the center of the old trading town. It was the Uzbek Shaybanid dynasty that ruled, and during, among other things, Abdullah Khan in the second half of the 16th century, Bukhara flourished, where students and scholars joined in large volumes. The arts and literature flourished, and several schools and a prestigious library were established in the city.
The Shaybanids ruled until 1599, when the Janid dynasty came to power. They came from Astrakhan and ruled over the Khanate of Bukhara until 1747.
In 1785, Bukhara emerged as an emirate between the rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya. Formerly it was called Transoxiana with its capital in Bukhara and the emirate existed until 1920.
The emirate’s development began with local officials, the so-called ataliqs, increasing power in a weakened khanate through the 18th century. One ataliq had great power, such as tutors from the khan’s children, and they took on the real power, while leaving some khanes as puppets before the emirate itself was established.
The Russian Empire expanded through the 19th century, and Central Asia was one of the areas incorporated into the empire’s empire. Bukhara Khanat lost a showdown against Russia in 1868, and Russia conquered the emirate’s territory in the years 1868-1873. The emir on his throne became subject to the czar, and the emirate was even expanded, with the emir’s supporting Russia’s struggles against, for example, Khiva.
During the Russian era, an upturn in the economy came with the Russian trade, and Bukhara became associated with other regions through first the Transcaspic Railway to Krasnovodsk on the Caspian Sea and later via Tashkent to Orenburg in European Russia. Bukhara station was established southeast of the city, and here the Russian administration established the city of Ny Bukhara, which had Russian city plan, housing, church, administration and other belonging to the administration of the area.
New Bukhara had a few thousand inhabitants, while Bukhara itself had a population of about 70,000. Bukhara was surrounded by walls and bastions, and here were many mattresses, mosques and markets. Centrally as a political center in the old city, Bukhara Ark was the residence and offices of the emir.
In 1911, emir Mohammed Alim Khan was crowned emir in the coronation hall of the Bukhara Ark, and it was to become the last coronation in the history of the emirate. Mohammed Alim Khan wanted to maintain his power and the opposition in the emirate joined the Soviet Bolsheviks in the wake of the Russian Revolution. In 1918, communist supporters announced that the city was ready to support the Bolsheviks against the conservative emir.
The Bolshevik army marched to Bukhara’s gates and demanded surrender, but the emir defended the emirate and Bukhara, which in itself had never been seriously annexed by Russia. This was done by allowing the Russian delegation to execute, destroying installations such as the railroad against Soviet-controlled Samarkand and generally launching a holy war against all Russian.
The Soviet army retreated to Samarkand, but for the emir it was a deadline. On August 16, 1920, the Bolsheviks decided to overthrow Bukhara’s emir, and just 12 days later the city attacked. It came to hard fighting, with the Soviet army led by Mikhail Frunze superior to the emir. After four days of fighting, the emir’s palace was destroyed and the red flag was hoisted in the Kalyan Minaret, the symbol of Bukhara. The Emir fled to Afghanistan, and the same year, Bukhara’s People’s Soviet Republic was established.
In 1925, the former emirate was admitted to the Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbekistan, and thus the area was integrated into the Soviet Union, which was replaced by an independent Uzbekistan in 1991.
During the Soviet era, Bukhara and the area around the city were developed with new neighborhoods, agricultural production and other things that industrialized the city. Immediately south of Bukhara’s Old Town, the new Soviet city was planned with wide streets, large squares, a statue of Lenin’s head of state and large public buildings such as administration and housing blocks in the growing city.
Bukhara is a desert city, and during the Soviet Union, much of the dry land was cultivated through irrigation. Cotton production increased significantly, which is still seen in the areas around the city.
Major restoration works were initiated during the Soviet era, and these have been continued under independent Uzbekistan, which continues to invest in the city. This is done, for example, in new motorways and the continuation of the high-speed Afrosiyob train from Samarkand to Bukhara.
Bukhara, Uzbekistan
Overview of Bukhara
Bukhara is a magnificent city that is one of the highlights of the historic Silk Road that linked Europe with Asia. The trade routes passed through Central Asia, and Bukhara was one of the most important cities on the route through present-day Uzbekistan. To this day you can enjoy a lot of the Silk Road history in the magnificent sights in the city center.
Bukhara is located in the middle of the desert, and out of almost nowhere a beautiful city rises, where some of the world’s most beautiful Islamic buildings can be seen. The silhouette consists of not least the Kalyan Minaret as a landmark with a number of the distinctive light blue domes surrounding it. The domes and other architectural highlights of the city are mainly religious works such as mosques, minarets and madrasas.
About the Whitehorse travel guide
Contents: Tours in the city + tours in the surrounding area
Published: Released soon
Author: Stig Albeck
Publisher: Vamados.com
Language: English
About the travel guide
The Whitehorse travel guide gives you an overview of the sights and activities of the Canadian city. Read about top sights and other sights, and get a tour guide with tour suggestions and detailed descriptions of all the city’s most important churches, monuments, mansions, museums, etc.
Whitehorse is waiting for you, and at vamados.com you can also find cheap flights and great deals on hotels for your trip. You just select your travel dates and then you get flight and accommodation suggestions in and around the city.
Read more about Whitehorse and Canada
Canada Travel Guide: https://vamados.com/canada
City tourism: https://visitwhite-horse.ca
Main Page: https://www.vamados.com/
Buy the travel guide
Click the “Add to Cart” button to purchase the travel guide. After that you will come to the payment, where you enter the purchase and payment information. Upon payment of the travel guide, you will immediately receive a receipt with a link to download your purchase. You can download the travel guide immediately or use the download link in the email later.
Use the travel guide
When you buy the travel guide to Whitehorse you get the book online so you can have it on your phone, tablet or computer – and of course you can choose to print it. Use the maps and tour suggestions and you will have a good and content-rich journey.
Bolo Hauz Mosque is a beautiful 18th-century mosque that was the place of worship for Bukhara’s emirs and their entourage. It is architecturally worth seeing and for both its role for the emirs and as a preserved mosque complex with prayer house, minaret and water basin.
The pool is older than the mosque, and it is one of the only such pools preserved in present-day Bukhara. The presence of the pool has given its name to the place, whose Uzbek name refers to the children’s pool. It is particularly atmospheric when Bolo Hauz’s minerat and ayvan are reflected in the water.
The Bolo Hauz Mosque was built in 1712 as a royal place of worship on the initiative of the Emir’s mother. The central location in Bukhara opposite the Ark Fort and Registan Square quickly made the mosque well-visited by the public. Up to and including the city’s last emir, who sat until 1920, the mosque was used for the Muslim Friday prayer, where the emir could in a short time go from his residence in Bukhara Ark to the mosque, which was continuously decorated in, for example, the beautiful ayvan, which is the gallery with the great colonnade. Officially, the mosque was not the mosque for Friday prayers, but it was the easiest to get to for the emir, and therefore it almost got this status.
Modari-Khan Madrassa is a Koranic school built in 1566-1567 in honor of Abdullah Khan II’s mother, as evidenced by the place’s name, which means mother of the khan.
The building is characterized by an elegantly decorated portal facade and a ground plan that does not have the traditional rectangular shape. This is due to the surrounding roads and the result was a trapezoid.
The madrassa was decorated with beautiful majolica tiles, and in addition you can see an interior that is quite normal for Koranic schools. The two floors of housing and schoolrooms which are niches around the central courtyard create a harmonious building which, together with the Abdullah Khan Madrassa opposite, forms a double ensemble; kosh madrassa.
The early history of this mausoleum is not known, but an inscription suggests that it was built under Amir Temur and thus in the decades around the year 1400. It commemorates Job of Bukhara, who held an administrative position as a water distributor in the city. With scarce water, it was obviously an important position.
Chashmai-Ayub means Job’s Spring, and according to a local legend, the biblical Job visited the place and either the water of the spring cured him of diseases, or he caused a spring of healing water to spring. The historical account, however, is that Job of Bukhara distributed water from the spring that is found inside the mausoleum to this day. On the site he had his administration and people came here to buy water.
In memory of Job’s work and the development of the water supply, the mausoleum was built as a memorial. Today you can also see the Bukhara Museum of Water Distribution/Buxoro suv Ta’minoti Tarixi Muzeyi in the mausoleum. At the museum there is an exhibition of effects and a fine description of the development of the city’s water supply. Historically, a river flowed through the city, but during an earthquake, the water’s path shifted to a place many kilometers from Bukhara.
A canal was built between the new bed of the river and Bukhara, which was thus supplied with water again. The canal’s water was distributed through many basins dug all over Bukhara. These are still seen in quite a few places in the city; among others at the nearby Ismail Samani Mausoleum.
Today, Chashmai-Ayub stands at the Samonid Recreation Park, which was previously laid out as a larger cemetery. It is a harmonious building, the main characteristic of which is the conical dome that rises like a tent over the mausoleum.
Directly opposite Chashmai-Ayub you can see a relatively newly constructed memorial in the form of a building. It is a memorial complex to Imam al-Bukhari named Imom al-Buxoriy Xotira Majmuasi.
Buxoro Dehqon bozori is the name of Bukhara’s large market with food and other products. With the climate and lushness of Uzbekistan, the market abounds in season, and here are apricots, peaches, figs, pomegranates, melons and much more, which are very inviting. Besides buying and tasting the goods, a visit to the market is also exciting with the atmosphere of liveliness that is always here.
Kalyan Mosque has the status of a cathedral mosque, which has been the case since its construction in the 16th century. However, the mosque was not active as such during the Soviet period in the 20th century. Kalyan Mosque replaced an earlier mosque from the 12th century, and its dimensions and interior make an impressive impression.
Kalyan Mosque is used today as a Friday mosque, making it the most important of Bukhara’s mosques. Large parts of the facility, which includes both an inner courtyard and many covered vaults, are open and therefore not an official part of the mosque. Here you can get an insight into the composition of the impressive building. At the western end of the courtyard, Genghis Khan is believed to have executed several hundred supplicants.
Ulugh Bek Madrassa is one of Bukhara’s best-known Koranic schools, and it is one of the three founded by the politician and scientist Ulugh Bek in the 15th century. The other two were built in the cities of Gijduvan and Samarkand.
The madrassa in Bukhara was built in 1417 by Ismail ibn Isfaghani at the initiative of Mirzo Ulugh Bek. It is classically furnished with two floors with study rooms and living spaces around the central courtyard. Added to this is the finely decorated gate building, the so-called iwan.
Ulugh Bek Madrassa stands as a fine example of the contemporary style and thereby of the buildings during the Timurid dynasty. For example, you can compare the style with the neighboring building Abdulaziz Khan Madrassa, which is more richly decorated and built during the later Ashtarkhanid dynasty. Abdulaziz Khan Madrassa together with Ulugh Bek Madrassa forms the so-called Kosh Madrassa complex; kosh means double.
A well-known part of the decoration is the verse by Ulugh Bek, in which he calls on all Muslim men and women to seek knowledge and wisdom, realizing as a scientist that this was the way forward to develop society. Today, the historic Koran school serves as a museum of the history of Bukhara’s historical buildings and their restoration.
Chor Minor, which means four minarets in Tajik, is a remarkable entrance building to a defunct Koranic school. Chor Minor Madrassa was built in 1806-1807 by a wealthy merchant from Bukhara, and his house was close to Chor Minor.
The entrance to the merchant’s madrassa was the four-towered and richly decorated building that can be seen today. The merchant was architecturally inspired by trade journeys in India and to the west, and the result was the beautiful towers and associated complex.
Before the demolition of the Koran school itself, the facility also consisted of a mosque, a pool and the madrassa in a harmonious architectural complex. Today you can see excavated ruins of the facility, and in Chor Minor there is access to a snail’s passage that brings you up to the roof of the building and thereby to a fine view. In Chor Minor itself is a shop with traditional handicrafts from Bukhara, which, among other things, consists of embroideries with motifs of pomegranates.
The city of Kagan lies southeast of Bukhara itself, and it was formerly called Ny Bukhara/Новая Бухара, when it was established as the center of diplomacy of the Imperial Russian administration with the Emir of Bukhara in the 1800s. The Russian planning of trade routes and administration in the Central Asian area happened not least along the railways that developed the regions.
In Bukhara, the railway was laid with a station in the town of Kagan, which quickly grew with housing for the people of the railway, an Orthodox church, customs and banking authorities. Thus, Kagan developed into the Russian center in Bukhara, whose emir started the construction of a new castle here in 1894. The castle was completed in 1898, designed by Alexei Benoit, and it is today Kagan’s greatest attraction.
The railway station in Bukhara is still located in Kagan, which got its current name in the 1930s. As part of the renewal of the Uzbek railway network, the high-speed Afroisyob train is also coming to Kagan, and in connection with this, a large new railway station building is being constructed.
Similar to Bukhara Travel Guide
