Day 5 - Bukhara

Our day starts by visiting the mosque and 3 medrassas facing Lyabi-Hauz square. The most impressive is Nadir Divanbegi Medressa. Curiously it’s exterior tilework depicts 2 peacocks holding lambs either side of a sun with a human face. Islam prohibits the depiction of living creatures! What struck us from the first day was that many of the religious sites, the medressas in particular, house crafts shops. The mullahs in Iran would be scandalised! We are invited into the courtyard for a dance and fashion show...

Once we manage to get past the stalls and vendors in the medrassas, we start exploring the sites. These are just a taster of what we will experience during the next three days. At every turn of a street corner in Bukhara one is surprised by the sudden appearance of a majestic minaret or by the apparent closeness of an azure mosque dome… It’s overwhelming. Our journey of discovery continues with the Ulugbek and Abdul Aziz Khan Medressas. The latter departs from the classical blue, white and yellow decorations of most mosques, adopting red and pinkish colours and motifs, which remind me of the atmospheric mosques in Shiraz in Iran.

Our last stop of the day is at the Ark, the fortress and palace of the emirs of Bukhara, until the last emir Alim Khan was ejected by the Soviets. Two emissaries of Queen Victoria’s, sent to test the ground for a ‘closer’ relationship between the British and the khanate of Bukhara, ended up spending years in a prison cell within the Ark to then be decapitated in the main square, the ‘Registan’. The emir’s reception and coronation court, the mint, the mosque impress in what, from the austere and dominating outside walls of the Ark, appeared to be quite a bare and simple inner structure.

As darkness sets in we take a quick peek at the Bolo-Hauz Mosque, built by the emir for his private use, opposite the Ark. A little gem. The neighbouring water tower built by the Soviets is also quite picturesque against the sunset.