Today we have a comfortable 172 km drive to Bukhara, so after breakfast at the yurt camp we retrace our steps from yesterday, past the lake back to the main road.
On the way we stop in the town of Nurata and visit a holy site where it is believed that Prophet Mohamed’s son in law struck the ground with his staff and a natural spring bubbled up. The spring water is a constant 19.5 degrees and contains 21 minerals. On top of the hill behind the spring are the remains of a fort built by Alexander the Great that has great views over the town. A mosque has also been built on the site so visitors can come to pray and take some of the holy water away in bottles.
Back on the road through the desert we stop at a rocky outcrop to see if we can spot some petroglyphs (rock carvings) of camels and other creatures. We are successful and find quite a few on the slate cliff face.
When we arrive at Bukhara it’s about 3pm and very hot, so we stay in our air conditioned room until 5pm before we go out to explore this wonderful city. We wander through some narrow streets to the Lyabi Hauz (Hauz being Persian for pond) complex which is a large square with a pond in the middle, a mosque at one end and a Madrese at the opposite end. There is an old caravansarai off the square that is now a craft area with carpet weavers, artists, suzani embroidery and other local artisan shops. Bukhara is famous for its arts & crafts and it is a very colourful old city that has been beautifully restored with quite a few bazaars that sell the local crafts. Suzani is the Uzbek word for a needle, from which this lovely embroidered needlework gets it name.
We explore a bazaar that has a wonderful domed roof with lots of local crafts for sale.
We visit the Abdulazizkhan Madrese built in 1652 which has a lovely mosaic tiled entrance and a beautiful painted porch.
We walk through narrow streets to the Poi-Kalyan complex which includes a Madrese, a mosque and the Kalyan minaret that was built in the 12th century. The Madrasa & mosque were destroyed by Genghis Khan and subsequently rebuilt but he didn’t touch the minaret as it was so beautiful.
We find a bar upstairs that overlooks this complex and have another MG beer as the sunsets over the rooftops and evening prayer is conducted in the Mosque, a very relaxing and peaceful end to a hot day.
We walk back to the Lyabi Hauz square to have dinner and we find ourselves sharing a table with a German couple and have a most enjoyable evening.
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