Excellent Short Travel Videos on Uzbekistan

Excellent Short Videos on Uzbekistan

1. Explore the heart of the Silk Road Uzbekistan (4:44)

Go to  Uzbekistan Gem of the Silk Road

2. Travel through Uzbekistan in April 2012; Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, the Kyzylkum Desert & Nukus - Florian Witulski (7:38)

3. Magical Uzbekistan - Khiva, Euronews (5:01)

4. Magical Uzbekistan - Bukara, Euronews (5:01)

  5. Euronews Video - Samakand Nov 2013 (both 5:00)  

   

The Growth of Fish Farming in Uzbekistan

The Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources of Uzbekistan reports that some 968 enterprises and farms that are engaged in fishing and fish farming in lakes and reservoirs in Uzbekistan. The total area of which occupy some 600 thousand hectares with more than 5,000 tons of fish production.

All regions of Uzbekistan have established fish farming in artificial lakes and reservoirs. Within five years it is expects that fish production will double in Uzbekistan. In Karakalpakstan, Jizzakh, Samarkand, Khorezm, Bukhara and Syrdarya the industry has been developing at a fast rate and it is expected that fish production will double in the next five years.

Uzbekistan is using worlds best practise and utilising advanced cultivation technologies of the most productive fish species based on utilising local feed with most aquaculture enterprises run as private concerns. Currently some 10 species including carp, catfish, asp, snakehead, and trout are grown in these farms. ( 70% of all fish bred are carp - silver carp, grass carp and european carp).

The industry is working on increasing the production of catfish and trout, as well as developing technology to grow sturgeon to produce black caviar in Uzbekistan. Another promising direction in the development of the aquaculture is the creation of a network of companies engaged in fish processing and its canning and other ready-to-eat formats. Also very important for the growth of the industry is the development of more production facilities for the high-protein feeds necessary for the further development and spread of aquaculture.

Current conditions of most wild fisheries in Uzbekistan do not allow for commercial and recreational fishing without artificial replenishment of fish populations. Thus, almost all fish farms, are not just producing fingerlings for their own use but also replenishing the fish populations in many rivers and lakes.

Source: Uzbekistan Today

Ceramics of Uzbekistan

Visit Uzbekistan

Photo: Top of a Cupola - Tashkent

Uzbekistan has a long and magnificent history - located between the two great rivers the Amudarya and Syrdarya Rivers and is one of the cradles of world civilization. It is the home of some of the world's oldest sedentary populations and several of its most ancient cities.

Beginning at the height of the Roman Empire, the region was a crossroads on the transcontinental trade routes between China and the West, the most important being the legendary Silk Road.

Subject to constant invasion and to imigration of nomads from the great grasslands to the north, being shaped by each conquests, today Uzbekistan is a land where many peoples with different traditions and customs came, and eventially came together as one.

It has seen endless number of rulers and empires. The famed trio Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane all ruled these lands. Arabs brought Islam where it prospered. Later on the lands divided into the Khanates of Bukhara, Khiva and Kokand, before being absorbed into Tsarist Russia and then as part of the Soviet Union after the revolution of 1917, before once again becoming an independent state in the year 1991.

The three UNESCO listed ancient cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, situated along the ancient Silk Road linking China with Europe, fully live up to their reputation of being among of the world's most special places.


Photo:The Registan - Samakand

Samakand with its majestic and colorful architecture is over 2500 years old; it is where Tamerlane (Timur) established the center of his Empire and left a remarkable architectural legacy; magnificent courtyards of Registan and Shahi Zindah, stunning blue, white and gold complexes of 15th century medressehs, mosques and tombs, the town's winding alleys and its chaikhanas (teahouses).

Photo: The Ark - Bukara

Bukhara with its narrow streets, small squares and markets was one of the most important commercial centers on the Great Silk Road has hundreds of monuments from the Middle Ages. Such ensembles as the Ark, Poi - Kalan, Kosh Madras, mausoleum of Ismail Samoni, the minaret of Kalyan fascinate visitors.

Photo: Ichan-Kala

Khiva an ancient walled city (almost intact), is similiarly fascinating. Around the famed Ichan-Kala are minarets, madrassas and residencies little changed from 300 years ago.


Photo: Ayaz Kala

Near by are more than 300 ancient Chorasmian forts lying in the dry lands of the adjacent Karakalpak Republic which has amongst the most interesting ancient monuments in all of Central Asia. There are also many other interesting places to visit include the famed Savitsky Art Museum in the capital Nukus.

Tashkent the capital of the Republic, centre of Government and Finance and its biggest Industrial centre and has a population of 3 million people. It is the largest ancient city in Central Asia (rose in the II century B.C) known in ancient times as Chach and has been a crossroads of traders carrying silver, gold, precious stones, spices, silk and splendid horses to and from Europe the Middle and Far east for almost three thousand years. Despite the earthquake of 1966 it still has a fascinating old city.

Photo - The ruins of Ak-saray - Shakhrisabz

Other very interesting places to visit include Shakhrisabz (near Timur's birthplace), an beautiful mountain town with one of the largest architectural ruins in Cental Asia Ak-saray.

Photo: The palace of XIX century Kokand Khan Khudayarkhan

Kokand, an ancient Silk Road city situated in Fergana Valley in 250 kilometres east of Tashkent once the capital of Kokand khanate and nearby Margilan - is famous for its fabrics and silks.

Ibn Battuta in Khorezm and Bukhara

Ibn Battuta

Ibn Battuta was the greatest Arab traveller of the Medieval times. Leaving his native city Tangier in 1325, at the age of twenty-one, he travelled to East Africa, Byzantium, Iraq, Southern Russia, Central Asia, India, Ceylon, Sumatra and China for 29 years, covering 120 thousand kilometres, getting as far north as the Volga, as far East as China and as far South as Tanzania. Ibn Battuta travelling in an era the beginning of the fourteenth century when Muslim rule had been spread over a large part of India, the Middle East and North Africa and had established a footing in China.

KHOREZM

In the autumn of 1333 Ibn Battuta arrived in Khorezm. The city having recovered from the devastation left by the Genghis Khan hordes. "Life is thriving in the city thanks to a large number of residents, and it looks like a billowing sea" He had just spent 30 days crossing the desert after leaving Sultan Uzbek's brand new capital of Saray al-Jadid on the Volga.

He was clearly impressed: " ... we arrived at Khorezm [Urgench] which is the largest, greatest, most beautiful and most important city of the Turks. It has fine bazaars and broad streets, a great number of buildings and abundance of commodities; it shakes under the weight of its population, by reason of their multitude, and is agitated by them in a manner resembling the waves of the sea. I rode out one day on horseback and went into the bazaar, but when I got halfway through it and reached the densest pressure of the crowd at a point called al-Shawr [the crossroad], I could not advance any further because of the multitude of the press, and when I tried to go back I was unable to do that either, because of the crowd of people. So I remained as I was, in perplexity, and only with great exertions did I manage to return."

The city had a new college (medresseh), recently built by its governor Qutlugh Timur in which Ibn Battuta stayed, a cathedral mosque built by the Amir's pious wife – the Khatun (queen) Turabeg, a hospital with a Syrian doctor, and a nearby hospice built over the tomb of Najm al-Din Kubra.

The city's residents also impressed Ibn Battuta: "Never have I seen in all the lands of the world men more excellent in conduct than the Khorezmians, more generous in soul, or more friendly to strangers."

The local people were also extremely pious, possibly because the muezzins of each mosque would visit the neighbouring homes and remind them that the hour of prayer was approaching. The imam would fine those who failed to attend and beat them with a whip, which was prominently displayed in the mosque as a reminder!

The city was close to the Jaiyhun River [then the main channel of the Amu Darya, now the Darya Lyk], which was navigable by boat in the summer, the journey to Termez taking 10 days.

He also received hospitality from the Sufi Order of Ahi and stayed in zaviya (Sufi tenements) where pilgrims, were warmly welcomed.

Also mentioned were a surgery where a Syrian doctor worked, and he wrote in detail about a zaviya not far from Khorezm, near the tomb of Sheikh Najm ad-Din al-Kubra. In the house of the doctor Kadi Abu Hafs Umar he was amazed by the beautiful carpets the central hall was decorated with, and the cloth-upholstered walls with numerous recesses where gilded sliver vessels and Iranian jugs stood.

Ibn Battuta also visited the Emir whose house, along with the sumptuous feast, he described in detail. He also emphasized the piety of his new acquaintances and the extravagant gifts they lavished on him: a large sum of money, a sable overcoat and a beautiful stallion.

He also mentioned that he especially admired were Khorezmian melons: '… there are no melons like Khorezmian melons, may be with the exception of Bukharian ones, and the third best are Isfahan melons. They are the best of all dried fruit.'......' Their peels are green, and the flesh is red, very sweat and hard. Surprisingly, they cut melons into slices, dry them in the sun, put them into baskets as it is done with Malaga figs, and take them from Khorezm to the remote cities in India and China to sell'

(ED: The melons grown in Western Uzbekistan are also the best I've ever tasted....)

From Khoresm, Ibn Batuta made his way to Bukhara by camel. It took 18 days. Most of the way from Urgench to Vabkent (an old settlement near Bukhara). The trip was very difficult for Ibn Battuta party as a result of the scorching sun, lack of water and good forage for camels, which were extremely exhausted by the time they reached there destination.

BUKHARA

Medieval Bukhara was one of the most famous cities in the Islamic world, and many Arab geographers described its splendor.

However, Ibn Battuta saw Bukhara in a sorry state: 'This city had once been the capital of the cities lying across the Jaihun River, but the cursed Tatar Tinghiz (Genghiz Khan)… destroyed it so that all of its mosques, madrasahs and market-places lay in ruins, with a few exceptions. Its residents are humiliated, and their testimony is accepted neither in Khorezm nor in any other country ......'

Bukhara the once-great walled city that tried to resist the Mongols had been almost totally destroyed, by them in 1220 however it was starting to come back to life by the time Ibu Battuta visited the city.

He stayed in Fathabad, a suburb of Bukhara, where there was a large zaviya and a mausoleum, which struck him by its dimensions, near the tomb of a sacred hermit Saif at-Din al-Baharzi. The Sheikh of the Zaviya invited Ibn Battuta to his place, as well as all notables of the city, and here, '.... reciters read the holy Koran in their pleasant voices, while the preacher made a sermon. They sang wonderful songs in Turkic and Persian. That was the most wonderful night of all nights'

And there are a lot of such excerpts in the manuscript, that is why the book is considered a masterpiece of "rihla" - geographic description of a country a traveller saw with his own eyes. Biographies of historical personalities often contain data that cannot be found in other sources.

When Ibn Battuta visited the city in 1333, he reported that all but a few of its buildings still laid in ruins, and had a poor view of the people of Bukhara saying that ,"there is not one of its inhabitants today who possesses any theological learning or makes any attempt to acquire it."

But before its destruction by Genghis Khan in 1220, Bukhara deserved its reputation as a city of pious scholars. In the tenth century, under the rule of the Samanids, it became known as a centre of Islamic learning, and established a reputation that survived succeeding centuries of scholarly darkness. Bukhara had wide paved streets and a population of 300,000. Its 250 madrasahs attracted students from as far away as Arabia and Spain. One such scholar Ismail al-Bukhary who was born in 810 in Bukhara, has been renowned in Muslim world for 1000 years as the author of the hadithses "AI-Djami as-salih", or literally in English Book "Trustworthy", which is the second most important Muslim text after the Koran

Its most famous son of Samanid Bukhara was Hussain ibn Abdullah ibn-Sina, known to the West as Avicenna (whose name became the basis of the word medicine), who wrote his famous medical encyclopaedia there, making the city renowned in the Islamic world. But all that was lost when the city was overrun in 999 by the Qarkhanids (Uighurs).  Avicenna himself fled, and wandered the Islamic world for most of the rest of his life. No buildings of the Samanids remain, except, appropriately, a mausoleum.

During the next century of turmoil, however, there must have been some continued respect for learning, or at least for architecture, because it was during that time that the tall and exquisitely beautiful Kalon minaret was built, to call the faithful to prayer five times a day, to serve as a signal tower at night, and to give notice to travellers that this was a city of pious Moslems. And certainly there was a fine city there when the Khorezmshah, ruler of Bukhara, Samarkand, and Khiva/Urgench, gave grave and deliberate offense to Genghis Khan. First, he executed as spies some 450 Mongol merchants. Then, when Mongol ambassadors were sent to seek reparation, he had one of them killed and shaved the beards of the rest. (ED: Ambassadors didn't always have protection).

In retribution, as the Khorezmshah might have expected if he'd known the Khan just a little bit better, Genghis pounded Samarkand into dust and reduced Bukhara to a level plain. "I am the scourge of God," he proclaimed in Bukhara. "If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me."

He spared only the intricately worked Kalon Minaret, the Tower of Death, from which prisoners were thrown to their deaths. Much of the rest of the once-great walled city that tried to resist the Genghiz Khan's Mongol army however was all but totally destroyed.

Kalon Minaret

On taking Bukhara Genghiz Khan had conquered the largest empire in recorded history, two-thirds of the population of Central Asia lay dead, and other cities like Farah, Urgench, Ghazni, Bamian, and Balkh were in ruins.

So much was destroyed by the Mongols in 1219 and by other Tatar armies in 1273, and 1316. It was said that in the aftermath of the conquest, civilization did for a time simply vanish.

Ibn Battuta reported that 'the mosques, colleges, and bazaars are in ruins ...' . Bukhara only started to come back to its former life some fifty years after Ibu Battuta visited the city when the great Tamerlane started to rebuilt the city, from about 1390. In time he and his decedents in the succeeding centuries were once again to turn the city into one of the most magnificent in all of Central Asia.

TRAVELS

A few years after Ibn Battuta's return to Tangiers, the Sultan of Morocco commissioned a young writer, Ibn Juzayy, who had enjoyed Ibn Battuta's tales, to record the traveller's memoirs.

The result was the book 'A Gift To Those Who Contemplate The Wonders of Cities and The Marvels of Traveling,' or 'Travels' (Rihalah) for short.

The manuscript presents a realistic picture of political, public and cultural life of the many places he visited in the first half of the 14th century and is considered to be one of the most descriptive geographic pieces of literature to come out of the Middle Ages.

Ibn Battuta's book had a steady readership over the centuries in the Muslim world. European orientalists had heard of the' Travels' by about 1800.

An abridged Arabic version done in 17th century was translated into English by Reverend Samuel Lee and published in 1829. Several full texts of Rihalah were found and between 1893-1922 it was edited and published in Arabic/French in four volumes by Defremery and Sangunetti in Paris (Imprimerie Nationale). Further translation into English was commenced by H A R Gibbs in 1929, who completed the first three volumes. The translation of volume 4 was completed by H A R Gibbs and C F Beckingham in 1994.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Battuta

Neighbouring Region of Karakalpakstan - Bukhara

"The Kalayan Mosque at night"

THE BUKAHRA REGION

Situated in the south-west of Uzbekistan the Bukhara Region has a total area of 39 400 sq km supporting a population of 13 84700 people, 68% (rural). The Kizil-Kum desert occupies a large part of the region. The climate is continental and arid. There are 11 administrative districts the capital the City of Bukhara, with 263 400 people. Other centres are the towns of Gidlduvan, Romitan, and Kagan.

The region is the traditional centre of Uzbekistan's oil and gas industry and has rich Mineral resources including graphite, marble, granite, gypsum, sulphur and limestone. It is also a centre for cotton and the production of textiles and also has other light industry. The main agricultural products are cotton and cereals, karakul lambs and sericulture (silk). Bukhara is also known for producing astrakhan rugs with the only factory in Uzbekistan.

One of the most ancient cities of the East Bukhara sits at the crossroads of two ancient trade routes and was a large commercial centre on the Great Silk Road and like Khiva it is famous as an open air museum.

"Poi-Kalon (Minaret) - Bukhara"

Bukhara celebrated its 2,500-year anniversary in 1997; legend connects the appearance of the city with the name of one of the deities of the Zoroastrian pantheon; Siyavush. At different times the city had been known under different names: Numizkat, Madinat-as Sufia, Fakhirs, Vikhara (the latter in Sanskrit means “monastery”).

In the 9th century Bukhara became the capital of the powerful Samanid state.It was during its period as the capital of the Saminid state in the 9th and 10th centuries that Bukhoro – i- sharif (Nobel Bukhara), blossomed as a religious and cultural mecca. Among those nurtured here were the philosopher scientist Abu Ali Ibn Sino (Avicenna after whom the word medicine is derived) and the poets Firdausi and Rudaki still figures of great stature in the Persian and Islamic world. The famous doctor and philosopher Avicenna spent his childhood here, the poet Rudaki composed his verses here and medieval historian and poet Firdausi lived here, too.

Bukhara’s library was glorified for its wealth of manuscripts written in Greek, Arab, Persian, Chinese and other languages. In the Middle Ages Bukhara had become one of the core religious centres of Asia: numerous mosques and madrasahs were constructed. In 18th century Bukhara became the centre of the Bukhara Emirate which existed up until the beginning of the 20th century. Today Bukhara is an administrative centre of Bukhara Province. The city has a population of 250,000 peoples.

Bukhara has preserved its history well and is visited by tourists from all over the world. Afterwards came the smaller Karahhanid and Karakitay dynasties however and Bukhara was badly damaged in 1220 when it was attacked by Genghis Khan and by 1370 it fell under the shadow of Timur’s Samarkand.

It is also considered to be a place of glory in the Muslim world; since it nurtured the author of the second most important Islamic book after Koran, the book of authentic hadiths, "Al-jami as sahih" known as the Imam Al-Bukhari and is the burial place of Nakshbandi- the founder of Sufism and the author of religious warrant "Nakshbandi". Both make Bukhara an important place of pilgrimage.

Those who visit Bukhara, will likely see strange "shaggy hats" on the top of the minarets. These are storks` nests. The “white bird of hope” serves as the city's symbol, a symbol of its firmness and stability. More than once throughout its history this rich city suffered invasion. The most devastating that of Mongols, but each time Bukhara revived; and what is more, it always revived on the same place unlike the neighbouring capital of Khiva that kept on moving to new locations.

The most ancient part of Bukhara is its citadel , the Ark, where archaeologists excavated finds dating back to the 4th -3rd century B.C. It is a twenty meter high artificial mound, at the top of the entrance ramp is the 17th century Juma (Friday) Mosque. The Ark now houses a museum on the city’s history, and the Zindan (emir’s palace) is now a big tourist attraction, showcasing his harem, treasury and such skin-crawling rooms as the Bug Pit, a torture chamber and the dungeons built initially during the 11th - 12th centuries and rebuilt after the Mongol invasions.

Outside the fort is the Registan once famous as an execution ground. It has witnessed some brutal executions; in its time perhaps the most infamous being the killings of British officers Col. Charles Stoddart and Capt. Arthur Connolly in 1842. Victims of a misunderstanding between the Emir of Bukhara and the British government (which failed to supply its emissaries with the appropriate gifts and royal letters of introduction), the two were imprisoned in the Bug Pit at the Zindan , then forced to dig their own graves before their ceremonial beheading in front of the Ark (the Emir’s palace).

The highest point in the city is the grandiose Kalyan (“Great”) Minaret built in 1127,towering 47 meters over the city is the greatest remnant of truly old Bukhara; Genghis Khan who destroyed most of the city, left the minaret standing, supposedly because he was struck by its beauty. The minaret, which draws visitors up its 105 steps to see a panoramic view of the city, was once the tallest structure in Central Asia. It has been called the “Tower of Death,” because, legend has it, executions were often performed by throwing the condemned from its heights.

Slightly narrowing at the top, its round tower it is the tallest minaret in Central Asia From top to bottom it is trimmed with a relief design constructed of blue glazed tiles. The ornamented bands ringing the minaret emphasizing its size and upward direction. At the same time, the diversity and rhythm of ornamental motifs enriching what is a rather simple and clear architectural form.

At the foot of the minaret connected by vaulted galleries is the famous is the “Poi Kalyan” ensemble. Opposite the mosque, its luminous blue domes in sharp contrast to the surrounding brown is the still functioning Miri-Arab madrasah built at the beginning of the 16th century it is amongst the most striking in the whole of Central Asia.

One of the oldest monuments of Bukhara is Ismail Samani mausoleum built at the beginning of the 10th century by the founder of the Samanid dynasty. The mausoleum is a perfect brick cube covered with a hemispherical cupola. This mausoleum of the samanids emirs with its beautiful decorative elements was the first major buildings in Central Asia to be built of fired bricks.

Nearby is the Chasma (city springs) of Ayub mazar that date back to the 12th century. According to the legend, the biblical prophet Ayub was once passing this waterless part of Bukhara, stabbed the ground with his stick and instantly there appeared a source with clear healing water. These artificial pools “hauzes” were not only for practical use (water and to cool the populous) but also to decorate the city.

In Bukhara at one time there were more than eighty pools. The most famous one is Lyabi-Hauz, which is surrounded by a plaza with cafes where people gather to eat, smoke and talk throughout the day. On the east side of the Lyabi-Hauz plaza is a statue of the wise fool Khodja Nasreddin (created by the folklorists Dakiki who also hailed from Bukhara) who appears in sunni teaching tales throughout the islamic world. Further east is the Nadir Divanbegi Madressa (1622) and to the west of the square the Nadir Divanbegi Khanaka. North is the Madrassah of Kulbaba-Kukedash (1568/1569) once the largest centre for religious studies in Central Asia.

Bukhara is not only famous for its mosques and madrasahs, mausoleums but also for its caravan-sarays, baths and multi domed bazzars which have been preserved and are still used as the main market. The bazzar includes the Taki-Zargaron ("the Dome of Jewellers"), the Telpak-Furushon ("The dome of cap makers") and the Taki-Saraffon ("The Money exchange").

Other important historical and architectural monuments of Bukhara:

* Ensemble of Bola Hauz, (early 18th - 20th centuries)
* Mausoleum of Samani, (9th - 10th centuries)
* Mazar of Chashmoi-Ayub, (1380 or 1384/1385)
* Madrasah of Abdulla Khan, (1596/1598)
* Madrasah of Madari Khan, (1556/1557)
* Mosque of Baland, (early 16th century)
* Ensemble of Gaukushon, (16th century)
* Khonaka of Zaynutdin Khoji, (1555)
* Khanaka of Nodir Divanbegi, (1620)
* Madrasah of Ulugbek, (1417)
* Madrasah of Abdulaziz Khan, (1652)
* Mosque of Bola Hauz, (1712)
* Mausoleum of Sayfiddin Boharziy, (2nd half of 13th - 14th centuries)
* Mausoleum of Buyon Kuli Khan, (2nd half of 14th, 15th or 16th c.)
* Mosques of Namazgoh, (12th - 16th century)
* Khanaka of Fayzabad, (1598/1599)
* Madrasah of Chor-minor, (1807)
* Chor-Bakr - The burial place of Jubayri Sheik's family, (1560/1563)

Outside of the city is

* The Summer Palace of Bukhara Emir Sitorai Mokhi Hosa, (late 19th century).
* The Holy Complex of Bahautdin Nakshbandi - includes the burial tomb of Nakshbandi
(1318-98)- the founder of the most influential Sufisi order and the author of religious warrant "Nakshbandi". One of the most holy places in the Muslim world.

Other places of interest in Bukhara Province are the Vardanzi and Kyzylkum Nature Reserves both established in the 1970ies to protect the rare Bukharin deer. Also found in the parks are the amudarian fasan, steppe cat, jackal, antelopes, wolves, various species of snakes and rodents.

A description of the main attractions:

1. Citadel Ark (VII - XX Centuries) - most ancient of all the Bukhara’s architectural monuments. Built on the place of a more ancient original fortress, Ark has seen multiple reconstructions and served as a residence for Bukharian rulers. The Citadel covers an area of about 35,000 sq. m. Mint and jeweller workshop, Vasir`s (minister) offices, jail, warehouses, small emir’s mosque, harem - all situated in the Citadel. Today Ark has number of museums: History Museum, Philately Museum and an Ethnography Museum.

2. One of the most famous architectual masterpieces is the Samanid Mausoleum (9th to 10th Centuries) - Family burial-vault of the Bukharian Samanid governors, one of the earliest known monuments of burnt brick built at the territory of Uzbekistan and perfectly preserved to our days. Architecture of the monument amazes by its harmonious simplicity, proportionality and singularity. The monument does not have any external plastering or tiling, instead, the builders were using just bricks positioning in such a way that to create unbelievably unique patterns, which change their look as the day progresses depending on the light intensity from deep shadows to a light and transparent lace.

3. Poi-Kalyan Complex including a cathedral mosque Kalyan (15th century) and the almost 50-metre tower of Kalyan minaret rises in all its splendour over the city
minaret Kalyan (1127). The facade of the mosque is decorated by glazed bricks, and the domes and the arches - by the superbly restored mosaic tiling intricately composed in inimitable epigraphic, geometrical and vegetable designs. Minaret Kalyan is 45.6m high and even today is the highest building in Bukhara. External surface of the tower is adorned in ten decorative belts each having its own geometrical pattern of bricks. A magnificent "sky light" completes the vertical of the minaret.

4. Chor-Minor (1807) - the original structure presenting what is left of a once small madrasah with a gateway structure of four small (some believe, Indian-style) minarets.

5. Kukeldash Madrasah (XVI), Lyabi-Haus Complex (XVII) – an basin of bricks 36m x 46m x 5m set in the wrench of 500-year old mulberry trees, a largest in Bukhara Kukeldash Madrasah and two structures linked to a name of the Bukharian Minister someone Nadir Divan-Begi: the Hanako (hostel and mosque combination) and Madrasah (both XVII).

6. A cult architectural complex of Bahautdin Nakshbandi (XIV - XVII) - created on the burial place of Nakshbandi – the founder of the Sufi Nakshbandia Order and a most respected saint and patron of Bukharian townsfolk. The complex includes two large mosques, a Holy Grave of Nakshbandi, a sacred well, a minaret, a basin and a trunk of an old mulberry tree ostensibly planted by Nakshbandi himself.

7. Sitora-i Mohi Hosa (XIX-XX) – the summer country-side residence of Bukhara emirs. Architectural style of the Palace is eclectic to include elements of both Eastern and European architecture. Interior most richly adorned in fretwork, white alabaster- and wood carving and marble supplemented with true masterpieces of the Bukhara textile craftsmen. Huge courtyard where antelope-gazelle used to roam and where peacocks and pheasants still walk about harmoniously completes a unity of the architectural ensemble.

8. The Jeyran Antelope Sanctuary - is situated 40 kilometres away from Bukhara near the town of Karaulbazar in the steppe land area. On its huge territory variety of wild animals are being preserved such as jeyran (steppe antelope), cheetah and Prjevalski Horse. Tourists have a chance to photograph the nearly extinct species in their natural habitat.