Major Sights

Bukhara is one of the richest cities by the number of architectural sites. It will take more than week to visit everything – just imagine: 360 mosques, dozen of madrassah, mausoleums, remnants of fortress walls and main gates, artificial ponds, and other sights. There are no skyscrapers, wide highways and big supermarkets here. The city is saturated by the spirit of antiquity, and the only evidence of modern time is cars, presence of various technical, electronic equipment and, certainly, tourists.
The city for few decades has turned into the real tourist center. Today the major part of population engages in the tourism service – there are many hotels, restaurants in national style in the city. All this creates favorable and comfortable leisure in the antique city.
The main sights of Bukhara are the Ark Fortress, the complex Poi Kalyan, the Ensemble Lyabi Khauz and small Samanid Mausoleum. These sights are the most impressive in the architecture of the city and in the list of sightseeing they are in the first place. Ark attracts with its massive walls; Kalyan Minaret – tower with height of 46 meters – is “the beacon” of Bukhara, which can be seen virtually from every part of the city; Lyabi Khauz is the former center of enlightenment; the Samanid Mausoleum is the monument of mixture of Islamic and Zoroastrian cultures, which some time ago was entirely buried under sand for saving from destruction by army of Genghis Khan.
Numerous mosques is the symbol of religious Bukhara. Thanks to them it is considered one of the largest Islamic cities. from other side, mosques of Bukhara differ with architecture, ways of decorations – all this enables to retrace the development of building thought in Central Asia. The most interesting mosques among them are the Bolo-Khauz Mosque, Magokki Attori, Balyand and Chor-Minor. True, chor-Minor is not the mosque, but this monument of the XIX century is very amazing building, and its scale and the proportion differs from other buildings of Bukhara.
Madrassahs of Bukhara, as opposed to mosques, do not perform their target functions and tacitly meet their guests. Many of them were big educational centers in XVII-XIX centuries, students from throughout Central Asia came to Bukhara to study theology. However, today they o not accept students, and some of them are gradually destroyed. The most interesting and beautiful is the complex Kosh-Madrassah, which consists of two buildings, facing each other. On entrance portals of these madrassah you can see ornaments of majolica, which not only perfectly preserved but remained as bright as early.
In addition, beyond Bukhara there are several big architectural sights: Sitorai Mohi-Hosa – the former residence of Bukhran Emirs – is located on the north, the Memorial complex of Bakhautddin Nakshbandi – on the east, the remnants of Namazgoh Mosque – on the south, the necropolis of Chor-Bakr, so-called “the city of dead” – on the west.
Bukhara is the unforgettable place. Visiting it once, you will desire to come back here to see whatever you could not see last time. It is the Oasis in Desert, which is able to slake the thirst of new knowledge and impressions. This is Bukhara, so holy and blessed.