Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa Palace

Some four kilometres north of the old town, among gardens where the air was thought to be cooler, the emirs of Bukhara built a country residence. Its name, Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa, is usually translated as "palace like the stars and the moon". An earlier palace stood here under Emir Abdulahad Khan in the late 19th century; the main buildings you see now were raised in the 1910s for his son Alim Khan, the last emir, who fled to Afghanistan in 1920.

East meets west

Alim Khan had been educated in St Petersburg, and his palace shows it. Two Russian engineers, Margulis and Sakovich, worked alongside Bukhara's leading masters, and the result is a European-looking exterior with interiors of pure Bukharan craftsmanship. The finest room is the White Hall, its walls covered in carved ganch, a fine white plaster, set over mirrors so that the carving seems to float; it is associated with the master Usto Shirin Murodov. Elsewhere you will find stained glass, tiled stoves, Russian chandeliers and Chinese and Japanese porcelain.

The museum

The palace has been a museum since 1927 and now houses Bukhara's Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts. Displays include palace furniture, gold-embroidered robes and saddlecloths, jewellery, and, in one of the outer buildings, a collection of historic suzani embroideries from across the Bukhara region.

The harem and the gardens

Behind the main building lies the harem, a long pavilion beside a pool. A story told by every guide says the emir watched the women bathe from a wooden pavilion above and threw an apple to the one he chose. Take it as legend. The grounds, with their old trees, fountains and free-roaming peacocks, are a pleasant hour in themselves, and children usually love them.

How to experience it

Go in the morning before the tour coaches, or in the late afternoon when the gardens are cool. Combine it with the Bahauddin Naqshband memorial, about 20 minutes' drive away, for a half day outside the walls.