Bukhara One Day Tour – Departure From Tashkent

The Magoki-Attori Mosque in the city's center is an example of an urban mosque in a residential quarter. The mosque was built on the site of the pre-Islamic Moh temple

It is located right behind Lyabi-Khauz, in the open space. “Chor–Minor” is translated as “four minarets”. This name is well justified: the corners of the square-rectangular madrasah building are really decorated with four small minarets crowned with blue domes, different in decors from each other.

Bukhara is well-known to the world not only with its mosques, Ark Fortress, and the majestic Kalyan minaret but also with its trading domes stretching in procession from Lyabi-Khauz to the Miri-Arab madrasah. Long ago, in the XVI century under the Shaybanides dynasty, Bukhara became the capital giving rise to unprecedented growth of the city, and since it was located on the Great Silk Road, the markets and trading stores even more congested cross-roads of public roads. Several centuries passed since that and four trading domes have only survived up to date.

Katta minor or Kalyan minaret is a symbol of Bukhara; the highest and one of the oldest architectural monuments of the city; one of the most outstanding structures of its kind in the Muslim East . The name Minorai Kalyan is popular and appeared only at the end of the 18th and at the beginning of the 19th century. The real name is associated with the name of the ruler Arslankhan and was also called katta (large).

There are two big blue domes of the Miri-Arab madrasah towering above the surrounding buildings in the center of Bukhara. Along with the Kalyan mosque and minaret, this religious educational establishment forms the whole ensemble Poi-Kalyan that is the spiritual center of the city.

Ulugbek Madrasah was found in 1417, as the inscription on the bronze plate of door runs says. There is a name of master in the portal tympanum, which was building this monument – Ismail ibn Takhir ibn Makhmud Ispfargoni. It is possible he was a grandson of one of the masters, who had been captured by Timur in Iran and left their names on the portal of Gur-Amir complex in Samarkand.

Opposite Ulugbek Madrasah there is Abdullazizkhan Madrasah. Abdullazizkhan built it in 1651 – 1652 and it is the last large Madrasah in Bukhara. The building is typical by composition, with four-ayvans yard, but with an unordinary divergent fan of hudj groups after side ayvans and cupola buildings on the central axis.

Ark-Citadel is a residence of Bukhara khans. According to the last excavations, it was determined the citadel was in this place from 4 century BC. For many years of building and destruction, 20 meters height artificial hill was formed; its upper layers were built over in the time of the last bokharan emirs. The wooden part of the Ark building was burnt down during the fire of 1920

The most ancient part of the complex is the pond (Khauz), which is called as Bolo-Khauz ("Children's reservoir"). It is one of several ponds in Bukhara, that reached our days. In past, these reservoirs were the water source for the population and unfortunately the source of many diseases. Therefore most of them were drained.

Of all the medieval buildings in Bukhara, the Samanids Mausoleum is of special interest. This world-famous architectural masterpiece was built at the close of the ninth century. The mausoleum was erected as a family crypt immediately after the death of Ismail Samani's father. Later, Ismail himself and his grandson Hasr were also buried in it. It is interesting to note that erecting crypts was against Islamic law at that time, for Islam forbade erecting any post-mortem monuments upon the tombs of Muslim believers.

In Central Asia, there exist a great many places which were presumably visited by saints many centuries ago. One of them is the Chashma-Ayub well, translated as Saint Job’s Source. A legend has it that the Bible prophet Job, having visited this land, decided to help the people who suffered from water shortage in the desert. He struck the ground with his stick, making a source of crystal clear water sprang at that place.