Last updated: June 01, 2008

Content of Bukhara History

From the history of the city
Fortifications
The Ark citadel and Registan
Western Section of the modern city
The city and the epoch
Trade cross-roads
Kosh-Medresseh. A Dialogue of the epoch
Subterranean and other mosques
In the eastern part of the city
Suburban Ensembles
In the Bukhara Oasis

Bukhara - a Cultural Gem

My home town Bukhara is a genuinely inimitable world of architecture, an entity in itself. Despite the great variety of style, trend, and epochs it is one whole and, really, it is difficult to give preference to any single mosque or minaret.

Let’s take a look at " Namazgokh ". This mosque has long ago lost the initial spirit for the sake of which it has been built and extolled – the spirit of faith. No longer does the mosque summon crowds of worshippers and the by-passer merely looks at the structure squinting his eyes against the sun. There is nothing to move him and he remains indifferent just like the visiting tourist who merely examines the dome and the blue ceramic tiles fringing the main entrance. The " Namazgokh " mosque was built in the sixteenth century and stands frozen in solitude. The ancient blocks of stone, of which its walls are made, have been shifted in places and crumbled in others and create a new form, something resembling of heathen times. By force of imagination I see in my mind’s eye the contours of a bird at the base of the dome. This bird is nothing like the birds soaring above the nearby onion field. A glance at the small entrance to the mosque identifies among the slabs a raised hand with muscles bulging , straining to uphold the weight of the portico. True indeed, the mosque seems to have traveled in time from one form of art, inspired by Islam, to another, new form of art and accordingly changes something in itself...
All this soliloquy was to come later.