Bukhara Province: Beyond the Old Town

Bukhara is at its best for travellers who base themselves inside the old town and give it time. Many of the historic merchant houses and madrasas have been converted into small guesthouses, and staying among them means having the monuments on the doorstep at dawn and dusk, when the day-trip coaches have gone and the lanes belong to residents again. Away from the main sights, the old Jewish quarter — Bukhara had one of Central Asia's oldest Jewish communities — is a quiet warren of lanes and courtyards worth wandering, and the domed bazaars still shelter working artisans, from brassworkers and miniature painters to knife-makers, whose trade is genuine rather than staged. The pleasure of Bukhara is as much this atmosphere as any single building.

The oasis around the city holds Bukhara's spiritual and royal edges. On the northern outskirts, Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa — the “Palace of the Moon and Stars” — was the summer residence of the last emirs, an eccentric blend of Russian and Central Asian styles whose over-decorated halls and peacock gardens make a diverting contrast to the austere old town. Further out lie two of the most important Sufi sites in Central Asia: the shrine complex of Bahauddin Naqshband, founder of the influential Naqshbandi order and a major pilgrimage destination, and the Chor-Bakr necropolis, a serene “town of the dead” of courtyards and domes among the fields west of the city. Both are active places of pilgrimage rather than museum pieces, and reward a quiet, respectful visit.

An easy trip north of the city, the town of Gijduvan is the home of a distinctive school of Uzbek pottery, its deep green-and-brown glazes and geometric designs kept alive across generations by one well-known family of master potters who welcome visitors to their workshop and small museum to see the wheel-throwing, painting and firing first-hand. The surrounding countryside is classic Bukharan oasis — cotton fields, poplar windbreaks and irrigation channels — quickly giving way to the Kyzylkum desert beyond, the same arid country the Silk Road caravans once crossed to reach the city. It is a reminder that Bukhara has always been a green island in a hard land.