Bukhara – where today and ancient days co-exist

Bukhara is the town where we enjoyed wandering most during our trip to Uzbekistan. If I could use only one word to describe Bukhara, it would be “Kyoto,” the ancient capital of Japan. I’m not sure how many of you have visited Kyoto before, but it’s where today and ancient days co-exist.

Bukhara contains many amazing historical buildings, but they all blend together nicely alongside the more modern features of the town. Another element linking Bukhara and Kyoto is the type of beauty it displays. Beauty in minimalism. Simple but rich. Sophisticated and elegant, but not glitzy or gaudy. The people knew how to make it “just right” – not too much, but not too little.

Exploring the compact old town on foot

Bukhara is a beautiful historical town with more than 100 architectural monuments. The small town is best explored on foot. As walking through streets, you come to realize that the historical elements and local people’s lives co-exist nicely. We came here for the historical buildings, but we ended up enjoying much more, spending time in its streets and cafes.

Toqi Sarrafon Bazaar is a trading dome where you’ll find many souvenir shops, and its atmosphere is pleasant. A local market, Defcon Bazaar, is another vibrant place where you can experience a slice of local life up close.

Minimalist architecture and design

My personal impression of the historical buildings in Bukhara is that of “minimalism.” In contrast to Samarkand, where everything is huge and gorgeous, the architecture and design in this town are simple yet elegant.

Kalon Masjidi and Kalon Minorai are two such examples. The basic layout of the buildings is similar to that is seen in other historical towns. But when looking at the details, you’d notice the ultimate level of their simplicity and sophistication.

Another favorite place was Abudulazizxon Madrasasi. This is the Persian style decoration of the front gate. While this way of using multiple colors could result in it looking glitzy or gaudy, but it retains its style and feels modest. It’s so beautiful.

These buildings feature a type of design that has reached extreme simplicity – Ismoil Samoniy Maqbasasi (below) and Magoki Attori Masjidi. It’s amazing to see how the architect created this level of richness using bricks as the sole material, combined with geometric patterns.

You could easily overlook Magoki Attori Masjidi, of which design is simply simple yet elegant, located between Toqi Telpak Furushon Bazaar and Toqi Sarrafon Bazaar. It was used as a mosque until only recently and actually dates back to the Zoroastrian time.

I’d also like to touch on Sitorai Mohi Xossa, which was only quite recently built as a palace, i.e. in the 20th century. While its design has an obvious European influence, the tonality is still based on Islamic art.

The liberalism where multiple cultures had encountered

Lastly, here are the two most famous buildings in Bukhara – Chor-Minor and Nodir Devon Begi Madrasasi. These represent the liberal spirit that artists in the town had.

The four-towered structure of Chor-Minor is unique style seen here only.

The artist for Nodir Devon Begi Madrasasi seems to have been unconstrained and pursued the beauty that he believed, while it’s forbidden in Islamic art to depict any kind of creatures.