A day of the 5 m’s today interspersed with some Ruth light relief.
The Ark was interesting. One of the oldest buildings in Bukhara it started life as a fortress in the 5th Century. Over the decades it was variously destroyed and rebuilt by invaders/settlers before succumbing to fire in 1920 rendering about 75% of it out of bounds. The khan left in the early 20th century so there was no pressing need to restore. The Soviets invaded in 1868 and later hung their red flag from the Ark and stuck a statue of Lenin in the square in front of it. Unsurprisingly the statue disappeared when the Soviets did.
Inside we found a mosque, reception area and throne room. This room contained the aforesaid throne with visitors enjoying their moment of power.
On the way to the next mosque we saw some camels and, even more exciting, surveyors in action!
We visited this ancient mosque, still working so we did not enter. It has the largest iwan (entrance facade) in Bukhara and is highly impressive with a cascade of colours and styles.
I had my first plov! This is the national dish of Uzbekistan consisting of rice, carrot, raisins, chickpeas and meat. I’d been wanting to try it for a while but in Khiva the meat was mixed in which the rice so I avoided. Here the Bukhara version has meat placed on top so I had a meat free version.
We walked down through a park resplendent with children’s amusements, a zoo park of concrete animals and kiosks selling warm coke. This is a Soviet era playground complete with its obligatory Ferris wheel. Unlike the ones we saw in Tashkent and Khiva (which had three) this wheel was still functioning.
The cube mausoleum of Bukhara Samanid was beautiful. Its woven like brick pattern is identical on each 10.8 x 10.8 m face and its walls 2 m thick. It survived destruction at the hands of the Mongols in the 13th century by lucky virtue of being half buried in the sand. The light shadows inside were lovely and I learnt a new word - squinch. A squinch is a construction term by which a building moves from a square like structure to dome. In this case the 4 walls were topped by an octagonal wall onto which a 16 sided brick edge was added. Eventually the dome emerged and the building squinched from a square to a circle.
We explored the nearby bazaar. Piles of biscuits, soap and bread, sacks of pasta, flour and lentils; bags of aubergines, courgettes and onions; heaps of apple, pomegranate and spices. We found some satsumas which were a rare treat. And I loved the spice towers created by the stall holders.
We wandered some more in the east side of the old town. Having the guide book with us was essential as the buildings had little no information about them bar their name and, without a tour guide, we’d have meandered aimlessly. The Madrassahs and mosques all look similar unless you know what you’re looking for. The tiles are unique in each mosque, the colours of the minrab (wall showing direction of Mecca) individual and the pillars, domes and layout the same but different. And each one has a unique history - usually involving a rebuild or two along the way.
As we drifted along we espyed a wine tasting offer. That sounded fun and it was. We sat in a small cellar, accompanied by our national flags. Well they didn’t have Luxembourg so JC elected to be Dutch. I tried 8 different wines, 4 white, 3 red and a port. Uzbek grapes produce very sweet wine so to vary their wine they have imported drier grapes from Georgia and other European regions. Their whites are still far too sweet for my palate but their reds are good and, to be frank, when in Uzbekistan drink Uzbek. Cheers!
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