Bukhara, which the locals call Buxoro, was one of the greatest citys in Central Asia. A capital once, renowned for it‘s Medrassas (Islamic religious schools) and many canals and pools that ran through the city. Many of the old buildings dating back to the 16th century remain, many of the canals and pools disappeared.
Like in Samarkand, in Bukhara the northern and southern route of the silk roads come together. It was a major trading hub with a huge fortress guarding it which also serves as the residence of the ruling Emir.
Having seen how many tourists are in town on our evening walk the night before, we decided to head out early and have breakfast later just to explore the city in the morning calm.
The sun was already up since 5.30 in the morning and bathed the city in a soft yellow light. It was so nice to walk the empty streets. Merchants started just to open a few stalls, No tourist in sight. We it felt like we had the place to ourselves.
We walked past all the known landmarks and Chris was able to shoot some good photos without many people in them. When we arrived at the Kalon Complex and saw that the doors were already open.
We paid the small entrance fee and had the Courtyard and Kalon Mosque to ourselves. A lot of renovations were going on and we saw that the way to the Iconic Kalon Minaret, an impressive 47 meters high, was roped off and under construction. Too bad, the view from up above would have been great.
We know that Inom will tell us all about the history of each place later duting the day, so we just let the serene early morning atmosphere sink in and Chris went photo hunting through town.
After 1,5 hours we were back at our nice little hotel and met Inom there for breakfast. We tried some new things, blini with a spinach and pumpkin filling. Hard boiled Quail eggs, and Chris had a dejà – vu as one of the local breakfast specialty is pancake with a quark like filling and cherry jam on top. He said that his mom loved those in Prague.
Our first stop on our walking city tour was the Emir‘s forteress, called the Ark. This is the oldest building in town and was consecutively lived in from the 5th centruy until 1920 when the Red Army bombed it.
It has impressive outer walls and today 80% are in ruins. The other 20% were restored and serve as an open air museum today. An old Mosque, the kings coronation and reception court and some smaller buildings still exist but the rest is a dirt mound, albeit one with a fantastic view across the entire city.
Leaving the Ark, we headed to the nearby Bolo Hauz Mosque, the Emir‘s official place of worship. Noteworthy are the wood carved pillars that are one of hte finest in Central Asia.
We took some time to explore all the different angles. Heading back towards the city center, we were ready for a coffee break on a nice terrace overlooking the Kalon square with it‘s gigantic minaret.
Fun fact: all the tables had used horse shoes inlaid in them for good luck.
We then went into the Kalon complex. The first think that draws all eyes is the Minaret. Built in 1129 by one of the ruing Khans, it was the tallest building in Central Asia at the time with a nearly 10 meter wide base and even reeds to make it earthquake proof. It has 106 steps inside but is only accessible through a small bridge from the main Kalon Mosque complex but has been closed to tourists for years – so we thought. Turns out Inom had a surprise in his pocket for us.
Inside the great entrance portal of the Kalon mosque is an inner courtyard ringed with a two storey series of balconies and rooms, most of the roped off due to reconstruction work going on. The mosque itself was open and like in Samarkand, tiled with beautiful blue tiles and had two towers with shiny turquoise tiles right and left. It was built in the 16th century and is big enough for up to 10.000 people. It is still an active mosque today.
Opposite the mosque and minaret is the Mir-i-Arab Medressa an astounding building but as it is still an active school, it is closed to tourists.
Wandering through the three ancient bazaar buildings we were surprised how always a small air flow was going on that made the 33°C degrees more pleasant. We had one more stop before breaking for lunch and that was a pair of older buildings oppsite each other, both Medrassas. The Uglugbek Medrassa we just saw from the outside, while the Abdul Aziz Khan Medrassa is one of the few buildings that havn’t been renovated much. Most of the buildings in town look newly renovated, nearly like a backdrop of a movie scene rather than stemming from the 16h century.
In the Abdul Aziz Khan Medrassa we fund also some wonderful hand crafted table runners, one thing that we find easy and useful to bring from our various travels.
We had a quick and yummy Chicken Kebap lunch with fresh bread and salads before heading back to the hotel for a quick fresh up, blog writing and shower session.
At 4 PM we headed out again and Inom led us through a maze of smaller streets, away from the city center.
Wondering where we would end up, all of a sudden a small square opened up in front of us and in the middle stood a very picturesque building called Char Minar.
Originally that was an entrance building to a long gone large medrassa. Char Minar has four small towers to symbolize the tolerance of each of the major religions at the time. Christianity, Islam, Judaeism and Zoroastrism (similar to Bhuddism). We climbed up to the top roof to see the towers close up.
Afterwards we ambled through the jewish quarter, small alleys with houses hidden behind big closed metag gates. In one place homes of three jewish families sharing some common space, was converted into a hotel and had a very charming interior courtyard and a common breakfast room dated back to the 16th century.
We headed back to the center and stood before Lyabi Hauz, a large origial pool of water shaded by old Mulbery trees ripe with fruit. We hadn‘t eaten Mulberries before. They come in white and black fruits and taste very sweet but good. There is so much fruit on those trees that is simply drops to the floor making for a sticky affair crossing the walkways underneath them. Small coffee and snack shops line the pool and everyone enjoys sitting here and esacpe the sun. The plaza dates back to the 16th century as do the trees.
The square is framed on one side by the Nadir Divanbegi Medrassa, now converted into a enter for Uzbek folklore dancing and fashion show twice a day. Originally it was a caravanserai for the trading merchants before it was converted into a Medressa. It has a lovely courtyard and a surround balcony with a number of study rooms on the second floor.
On the other side of the Lyabi Hauz is the Kukeldash Medressa. One of the few non renovated buildings. It dates back to 1569 and was the biggest Islamic school in Central Asia at that time. We climbed up some very narrow and old stairs to the second floor and made our way through a series of stair cases and low ceilinged passages to the front of the Medrassa onto a little balcony overlooking the square. Not many tourists get to enjoy that view as we normally would never have ventured that far. Again we were grateful to have Inom with us who seemed to know every nook and cranny.
On the third side of Lyabi Hauz we saw the Nadir Divanbegi Khanaka, a Sufi cloister used in religious ceremonies and scientific debates at the time.
We worked up some appetite by now and slowly headed to our dinner place right overlooking the Poi Kalon (Kalon square). The evening light was soft and yelow. Wandering onto Poi Kalon with it‘s stunning Kalon Minaret, Inom asked us to wait a bit and disappeared in the entrance of the Mosque. After a while he came back and motioned to us to follow him. He somehow managed to convince one of the guards to let us to climb the minaret tower.
Esther did not have the suitable footwear on but Chris happily went with inom and a guard to climb up 106 steps to the top of the tower.
We are not sure how many tourists neoticed a quick dash of 3 people across a little bridge or some faces on top of the Minaret, but we felt really proviledged to have been given that opportunity to look onto the square from the birds perspective.
Chris in person and Esther in form of his pictures. After this unexpected bonus excursion, we went to our roof top terrace restaurant overlooking the Kalon square with an excellent view onto the Minaret and Mir i Arab Medrassa at sunset.
We had a wonderful balmy evening, good food, nice wine, nice company and a grandiose view.
As we needed to get up at 2.40 AM that night to catch our sleeper car train to Bukhara, we retired early to get a few hours of sleep.
Summarizing Bukhara, it is am ancient, impressive city steeped in history and if you pick the right times and spots, you can see so much more and it grows on you, as long as you avoid the crowds that can transform the whole place into some kind of Touristan which can easily put a damper on everything.