Ark of Bukhara

Interesting facts

A large leather whip once hung on one of the Ark's walls as a symbol of the emir's power over his subjects.

A test trench dug in 1979–80 reached an adobe fortress wall from the 4th–3rd centuries BC, buried 16 to 18 metres deep.

The walls run for about 790 metres around the citadel and enclose almost 4 hectares.

Bukhara's first mosque was built inside the Ark by the Arabs in 713, on the site of a pre-Islamic temple.

Chronicles record the citadel being destroyed and rebuilt again and again, including by the Khwarazmshah Atsiz in 1140 and by the Mongols in 1220.

In spring 1405, after Timur's death, the young Ulugh Beg took refuge in the Ark with the royal treasury and spent a month strengthening its walls and gates.

Emir Muzaffar, who ruled from 1860 to 1885, had a special house built inside the Ark to lodge Russian envoys.

In 1920 Mikhail Frunze had the Ark bombed from aircraft, and the emir's harem was reduced to compacted clay that archaeologists consider beyond restoration.

After the emir fled in 1920, a fire raged through the citadel for four days.

According to legend, the Chil-Dukhtaron mosque inside the Ark recalls forty girls who were tortured and thrown into a well.

Why it is worth it

The Ark is Bukhara's citadel: an artificial hill with steep earthen walls 16 to 20 metres high that rises out of the flat city like a ship. Archaeologists have found some twenty metres of earlier layers beneath it, the remains of fortresses built and destroyed again and again, and by around 500 CE it was already the seat of local rulers. For most of its history the Ark was less a barracks than a walled town of its own, where the ruler, his ministers, officials, soldiers and servants lived, worked and kept the treasury and the prison.

Its story is full of legend. One tradition credits its founding to the Persian hero Siyavash, who won a bride by building a palace within the bounds of a bull's hide cut into thin strips. The 10th-century historian Narshakhi tells how a ruler, tired of seeing the fortress collapse, built it on seven points arranged like the stars of the Great Bear, after which it never fell down again. The Mongols of Genghis Khan stormed it all the same, and scholars such as Avicenna are linked to the royal library that once stood here.

The buildings you see today date from the last three centuries, built by the Uzbek Ashtarkhanid and Manghit dynasties, and much of the rest was ruined in 1920, when the Red Army under Mikhail Frunze attacked Bukhara and the last emir fled. The ceremonial entrance faces the Registan square between two 18th-century towers; a long covered ramp leads up past storerooms and cells to the Juma mosque. Inside are the throne room, the coronation courtyard, the court mosque and museums of history and archaeology.

Getting there

The Ark is in the old centre of Bukhara, about 2 km from the city centre point. Bukhara International Airport (BHK) is about 6 km away.

From the encyclopaedia

The Ark of Bukhara is a massive fortress located in the city of Bukhara, Uzbekistan, that was initially built and occupied around the 5th century AD. The Ark's current structure began to develop during the 16th century under the Shaybanid Uzbek dynasty, while all of its existing buildings were constructed in the last three centuries. In addition to being a military structure, the Ark encompassed what was essentially a town that, during much of the fortress's history, was inhabited by the various royal courts that held sway over the region surrounding Bukhara. The Ark was used as a fortress until it fell to Russia in 1920. Currently, the Ark is a tourist attraction and houses museums covering its history. The museums and other restored areas include an archaeological museum, the throne room, the reception and coronation court, a local history museum, and the court mosque.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Ark of Bukhara

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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From the encyclopaedia