From nine in the morning we crossed the aridity of Kyzyl Kum, in the first third of the route, with Turkmenistan imminent, to the south.
A via uzbek that cuts through the desert is little more than a road project. It was only at almost five in the afternoon that we covered the 450km that separate Khiva of Bukhara, two of the great historical cities of Central Asia.
In the time it takes us to check into the hotel and recover from the road accident, the sun begins to set and gild the city, already yellow from the ancient limestone that supports it.
Sun sets in the west of Bukhara.
In Search of the Bukhara Register
We are a few hundred steps from the Registão, the former pulsating heart of the city, public square, market place and even place of executions of criminals.
In pursuit, down a street paved with gray tiles, we greet two young adversaries.
Kids face off in a game of backgammon
They face each other in successive games of backgammon, on an open board-box.
Once seated, the kids play on a set of traditional scarlet and black rugs, with geometric patterns comparable to so many others that we soon spot.
We come across a side facade of the large square. Then, its front.
The façade of the Mir-i-Arab madrasa is filled with twelve tiled, ogival arches, which lead to an integral ogival that serves as a central portico.
Detail of a portico in the Bukhara Registan.
Crafted and colored down to the smallest detail, this portico also contains ogival niches, a privileged geometric pattern prevalent in the Islamic architecture of Central Asia.
Twilight steals the dominant burnt yellow and turquoise of the domes of the madrasa and the Kalyan mosque opposite.
Silhouettes on a portico of the Bukhara Registan.
Little by little, the dominance of silhouettes gives way to another, equally or less ephemeral.
A dramatic yellow artificial light emanating from inside the porticos obscures the fading sky blue. Little by little, it reveals the stars and planets studied by Ulugh Beg, from his observatory in Samarkand.
Artificial lights give new colors to the Bukhara Region.
The Kalyan Minaret, the Mosques and Madrasas of Registan
It highlights, like a rocket from another time, the lofty and oldest structure of Registão.
The Kalyan minaret dates back to the 12th century.
It predates the other buildings by several centuries. At almost 50 metres high, it stands out well above the rest of the complex.
It can be seen from great distances in the surrounding desert plain, like an administrative and religious beacon that subjects and believers have become accustomed to praising. And, for justified reasons, to fear.
For a long period, the royal authorities used it as a means of execution. They simply threw those convicted of the most serious crimes from the top.
Kalyan Minaret, formerly known as the Tower of Death.
Because it was too tall to enhance the muezzins' call to prayer, the Kalyan minaret served dual functions of observation and execution of capital punishment.
It came to be known as the Tower of Death.
It gives us a last glimpse of Registão before retiring for dinner in a traditional fabric and carpet shop, versatile enough to serve meals.
Carpets displayed in shops in Bukhara.
There we recharged our batteries by tasting Uzbek dishes. There we learned that hand-embroidered fabrics, usually made of tablecloths or bedspreads, are called Susanne.
As always on this journey through Uzbekistan, we are accompanied by Ravshan, the driver, and Nilufar, a young guide. Nilufar explains this and much more to us.
She has been with us for almost a week now and also reveals that she and her family are from there, from Bukhara. She misses seeing them.
But his parents live more than 40km away. “I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to do it.” He says in frustration, just before we finish the meal and go to the hotel.
The minarets of Chor Minor
New Day in Bukhara. Discovering the Ancient City
The next morning, Nilufar begins his explanatory tour of Bukhara. From the city's supreme minaret, we advance to the tower block of Chor Minor, a building with the unique design of a mosque in Bukhara.
It was built at the beginning of the 19th century as part of an old madrasa, which was later destroyed.
Of its four towers, three were used to store supplies. The remaining one contained a staircase leading to the upper floor.
In 1995, due to the action of an underground water table, one of them collapsed and, because of the structural imbalance generated, Chor Minor itself was at risk of collapse.
The damage was repaired. Still, the strange building, built by a Turkmen resident of the city and used for liturgy and shelter, remained closed.
Painter touches up the painting of the Chor Minor monument.
We limited ourselves to admiring it from the courtyard that stretches out in front, where, in the shade of a low tree, an artist was putting the finishing touches to a painting that made the monument and its stronghold look much greener than the way it was painted in reality.
The Ismail Samani Mausoleum and Bolo Khauz Mosque
On Nilufar's recommendation, from there we progressed to one of the most revered and pioneering mausoleums in all of Central Asia, that of Ismail Samani.
As the name suggests, it was built by Ismail in the 10th century as a burial place for the Samanid kings who succeeded him.
Inside, a family prays, sitting in a corner.
Worshippers pray in a corner of the mausoleum of Ismail Samani
Nilufar whispers to us what he has to explain. After that we move on to the Bolo-Khauz mosque.
We quickly realize that it is distinct from the others, clearly demarcated by the wooden columns that support the canopy at the top of its façade and by the lake (khauz) rounded at the front.
At the entrance, artisans work on tin crafts, absorbed in the meticulous lines of Bukhara's monuments that furrow the metal plates.
Craftsman works a sheet of tin.
A few faithful pray in the mosque's prayer hall, under a new set of large and smaller ogives that delimit and decorate what we would dare to call a peculiar Islamic altar.
An Eccentric Trade in Soviet Jewelry and Relics
The day was already long. The heat was getting worse again. We forced ourselves to take a long lunch break. The restaurant is next to a shopping complex.
There we witnessed an unexpected hustle and bustle, especially in the sale of jewelry with precious stones.
A woman admires them, arranged on velvet displays, using small magnifying glasses to reveal them.
Two potential buyers in non-Islamic attire talk to a business owner.
Behind this trio, a strange poster is insinuated, with an image of the ritual hajj of Mecca, under the name, in Cyrillic alphabet, of his jewelry store.
Jewelry salesman talks to two women.
We continue to find precious things there.
Another dealer displays a whole panoply of Soviet-era relics from present-day Uzbekistan, medals, posters of generals and political leaders.
Photograph in a store full of Soviet relics.
Even if his image is smaller than others, that of Vladimir Lenin, one of the ideological and political mentors of the formation of the USSR, stands out.
Convinced that he would entice us to buy, the seller unfurls a red flag, with a blue stripe in the center and a hammer and sickle above.
As eye-catching as it was, the standard only reflected 67 years of Bukhara's incredible antiquity.
Vendor displays old flag of Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic
The Successive Metamorphoses of Bukhara
Bukhara has evolved as a city, it is estimated, for more than two millennia.
From the 2nd century BC, it was part of one of the main routes of Silk Road who contributed to bringing the Budismo to the oasis in which it was located.
The expansion of Buddhism and, to a lesser extent, Zoroastrianism, between at least the 709st century BC and the XNUMXth century AD was abruptly interrupted by the Arab invasion of XNUMX AD and the promotion of the city to the capital of the Persian-influenced Samanid, Karakanid and Khwarezmian khanates.
Panoramic view of the historic center of Bukhara
This new Arab direction was interrupted in 1220 by the Mongol invasion of Ghengis Khan, which was followed by incorporation into the Timurid Turko-Mongol empire until 1405.
Finally, Bukhara and the surrounding oasis were part of a trio of Uzbek khanates (kingdoms) that administered it prolifically and provided it with many of the religious monuments that still exist there, including the minarets that define its distinctive skyline.
Believers greet each other in the Bukhara region.
In 1870, the rapidly expanding Russian Empire subjugated these khanates.
We come to 1917 and the Russian Revolution.
Bukhara and the Current Fusion of Islam and Soviet Heritage
Based on the newly emerging Uzbek ethnicity, the former khanates adjusted to the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic whose flag the vendor was showing us.
And that the Bolsheviks and their Soviet successors flooded with Marxism-communism, atheism and so many other dogmas and cultural and political elements incompatible with Islam.
Woman walks past the Ark fortress in Bukhara.
We went around the ancient Ark, a strength completed in the 5th century AD, used as a royal subdomain of Bukhara by the various monarchs who controlled the region, until its incorporation into Russia and the USSR
In this circle, four men carry furniture on the roof of a Lada Vaz-2101.
On a real motorized box, just one of thousands of examples that prove how much – thirty-three years after the breakup of the USSR and the Independence of Uzbekistan – Soviet mechanics and heritage persist in Bukhara.
Men from Bukhara just after loading furniture onto an old Lada.
A second relic seller places a peaked hat belonging to some Red Army officer stationed there.
To retain us, he emulates a military speech in Russian.
Soviet relics seller in a military hat
As we walk under a large archway in the Registan, close to the Kalyan minaret, a muezzin echoes a new call to prayer.
How to go
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