Bokhara

Bokhara - City in Uzbekistan

Bokhara (also spelled Bukhara Bukhoro or Buxoro) in Uzbekistan was historically one of the great trading cities along the Silk Road. The city center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Favorite Tourist Sights

Po-i Kalyan Complex

The title Po-i-Kalyan (also Poi Kalyan), which means “The foot of the Great”, belongs to the architectural complex located at the foot of the great minaret Kalyan.

Kalyan minaret

The minaret made in the form of a circular-pillar brick tower, narrowing upwards, of 9 meters (29.53 feet) diameter at the bottom, 6 meters (19.69 feet) overhead and 45.6 meters (149.61 feet) high.
Kalyan Mosque (Maedjid-i kalyan)

Kalyan Mozque, arguably completed in 1514, is equal with Bibi-Khanym Mosque in Samarkand in size. Although they are of the same type of building, they are absolutely different in terms of art of building.
Mir-i Arab Madrassah

There is little known about the Mir-i Arab Madrasah origin. The construction of Mir-i-Arab Madrasah is ascribed to Sheikh Abdullah Yamani of Yemen, the spiritual mentor of early Shaybanids. He was in charge of donations of UbaidUllah-khan (gov. 1533-1539), devoted to construction of madrasah.

The Ismail Samani mausoleum (9th-10th century), one of the most esteemed sights of Central Asian architecture, was built in the 9th century (between 892 and 943) as the resting-place of Ismail Samani - the founder of the Samanid dynasty, the last Persian dynasty to rule in Central Asia, which held the city in the 9th and 10th centuries. Although in the first instance the Samanids were Governors of Khorasan and Ma wara’u'n-nahr under the suzerainty of the Abbasid Caliphate, the dynasty soon established virtual independence from Baghdad.

Chashma-Ayub is located near the Samani mausoleum. Its name means Job’s well due to the legend according to which Job (Ayub) visited this place and made a well by the blow of his staff. The water of this well is still pure and is considered healing. The current building was constructed during the reign of Timur and features a Khwarezm-style conical dome uncommon in Bukhara.

The Lyab-i Khauz Ensemble (1568-1622) is the title given to the area surrounding one of the few remaining Hauz or ponds surviving in the city of Bukhara. Until the Soviet period there were many such ponds, which were the city’s principal source of water, but they were notorious for spreading disease and were mostly filled in during the 1920s and 30s. The Lyab-i Hauz survived because it is the centrepiece of a magnificent architectural ensemble, created during the 16th and 17th centuries, which has not been significantly changed since. The Lyab-i Hauz ensemble consists of the Kukeldash madrasah[7] (1568-1569), the largest in the city, and of two religious edifices built by Nadir Divan-Begi: a khanaka[8] (1620) or lodging-house for itinerant Sufis, and a madrasah[9] (1622) that stand at right angles to each other.