Living Museum City

Bukhara

Overview

Holy Bukhara has barely changed in centuries. Its car-free old town is a UNESCO World Heritage site where madrasahs, minarets and trading domes crowd together along lanes that still hum with daily life — the most atmospheric city on the Silk Road.

Why Visit

A remarkably intact medieval old town you can explore entirely on foot
The Poi Kalon ensemble and the thousand-year-old Kalon Minaret
Working artisan workshops and welcoming tea houses around Lyabi-Hauz

Travel Tips

— Stay inside or near the old town — everything is walkable
— Linger: Bukhara rewards a slower pace than the other cities
— Climb to a rooftop terrace for sunset tea

Sights in Bukhara

Architectural ensemble · 1127 (minaret), 1514 (mosque), 1535–1536 (madrasa)

Po-i-Kalyan Ensemble

The heart of holy Bukhara: the 12th-century Kalyan Minaret that Genghis Khan left standing, the vast Kalyan Mosque and the turquoise-domed Mir-i-Arab Madrasah, facing each other across one paved square.

Fortress · from c. 5th century; present buildings 17th–20th centuries

Ark Fortress

A city within a city: the sloping mud-brick walls of the Ark sheltered Bukhara's rulers for some fifteen centuries, until the Red Army stormed it in 1920. Inside are the coronation court, a royal mosque and the city's museums.

Architectural ensemble · 1568–1623

Lyabi-Hauz Ensemble

Bukhara's living room: a 17th-century stone pool shaded by old mulberry trees and framed by three religious buildings, where the old town gathers for tea, plov and conversation from morning until late evening.

Mausoleum · late 9th – early 10th century

Samanid Mausoleum

A small cube of baked brick, about ten metres a side, that rewrote the rules of Islamic architecture. Built for the Samanid dynasty more than a thousand years ago, it survived the Mongols because it lay buried in silt.

Bazaar · 1534–1577

Trading Domes and Tim Abdullakhan

Four 16th-century covered markets on the old caravan street between Lyabi-Hauz and Po-i-Kalyan: the domes of the money changers, hat sellers and jewellers, and the great silk hall of Abdullakhan. Still trading after 450 years.

Madrasa · 1807

Chor-Minor

Four stubby towers with turquoise domes rising from a quiet residential lane: the gatehouse of a vanished madrasah, built in 1807 by a wealthy merchant, and one of the most photographed buildings in Bukhara.

Mosque · 9th–10th century; facade 12th century

Magoki-Attori Mosque

Sunk several metres below today's street, Bukhara's oldest surviving mosque shows how high the city has risen over a thousand years. Its carved 12th-century brick facade is among the finest in Central Asia; inside is a carpet museum.

Madrasa · 1417 and 1652–1654

Ulugbek and Abdulaziz Khan Madrasahs

Two madrasahs facing each other across a narrow lane, built 235 years apart: the sober scholarly college of the astronomer-prince Ulugbek, and the extravagant, figurative tilework of Abdulaziz Khan.

Mosque · 1712; iwan and minaret 1917

Bolo-Hauz Mosque

The emir's own Friday mosque, opposite the Ark: twenty slender carved columns hold up a painted porch twelve metres high, and on a still day the whole facade is mirrored in the pool in front.

Palace · late 19th century – 1918

Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa Palace

The summer palace of the last emir of Bukhara, a curious blend of Russian provincial and Bukharan craft: a White Hall of mirrors and carved plaster, a harem by a pool, gardens with peacocks, and a fine museum of decorative arts.

Architectural ensemble · 16th century, with later additions

Bahauddin Naqshband Memorial Complex

The resting place of Bahauddin Naqshband (1318–1389), founder of one of the world's great Sufi orders, and the most revered pilgrimage site in Bukhara. A calm complex of courtyards, mosques and gardens in the village where he lived.

Mausoleum · 12th–16th century; main hall c. 1380

Chashma-Ayub

A shrine over a spring that legend says the prophet Job struck from the ground with his staff. Its pointed Khorezm-style dome is unique in Bukhara, and inside is a small museum of the city's water history.

Madrasa · 1622–1623

Nadir Divan-Begi Madrasah

The madrasah on Lyabi-Hauz whose portal breaks every rule: two mythical birds carrying white deer towards a sun with a human face. Built as a caravanserai, it became a college by a khan's word, and today hosts evening folklore shows.

Old quarter · from the 16th–17th century

Jewish Quarter and Synagogue

A few lanes south of Lyabi-Hauz lies the old quarter of the Bukharan Jews, one of the oldest Jewish communities of the East. Its synagogue still holds services, and its courtyards and cemetery tell a story of many centuries in the city.

Museum · late 19th century

Fayzulla Khodjaev House-Museum

The courtyard home of a rich Bukharan merchant family, with painted ceilings, carved plaster niches and separate quarters for men and women. It was the childhood home of Fayzulla Khodjaev, a leader of Soviet Uzbekistan executed in 1938.

Architectural ensemble · 1559–1563, with later additions

Chor-Bakr Necropolis

A walled city of the dead west of Bukhara: courtyards, portals and domed tombs of the Juybari sheikhs, the most powerful religious family of 16th-century Bukhara, grouped around a mosque, khanaka and madrasah.

Madrasa · 1566–1567 and 1588–1590

Kosh Madrasah: Modari Khan and Abdullakhan

A quiet pair of madrasahs facing each other south of the Ark, both built by Abdullah Khan II: one in honour of his mother, the other in his own name. Few tourists find them, which is part of their appeal.

Craft workshop · pottery tradition of several centuries; Ulugbek Madrasah 1432–1433

Gijduvan Ceramics

A market town 45 km from Bukhara where families of potters still turn, paint and fire ceramics in warm browns, ochres and greens. A visit to a workshop pairs well with the shrine of Abdulkhaliq Gijduvani and the town's famous kebab.