Located in the middle of Kyzyl-Kum Desert, Bukhara, a historic city on the great ancient Silk Road, is liked a mirage from the Arabian nights fairy tales with many outstanding monuments that easily take your breath away. Seeing monuments of Bukhara is quite straightforward as all important sights are located in single tourist routes from the amazing brick mausoleum of Ismail Samani to great Kalon Minaret complex with inspired Kalon Mosque and end at the photogenic four towers of Char Minar.

Other monuments are also worth mentioned, the wooden carving columns of Bolo-Hauz Mosque near the Ark Fortress are just gorgeous, the newly restored façade of Abdul Aziz Khan Medressa is so unbelievably colorful that you may think that you are in India’s Rajasthan and truly one of my favorite, and the relaxing area of recently renovated Lyabi-Hauz with the nearby beautiful mosaic of Nadir Divanbegi Medressa. The well-preserved bazaar buildings are exceptional with the sophisticated roof. However, similar to other places in Uzbekistan, almost all Bukhara’s religious monuments had been turned to souvenir complexes and restaurants which sometime really destroyed the atmosphere of the place.

As mentioned, the Lyabi-Hauz area had been renovated as well as many areas in the old city, those areas are very clean and so well organized liked the museum city of Khiva, which totally contrast to un-renovated of Bukhara. In my opinion, Bukhara has potential to become second Khiva, which I don’t think a good example as the city will become lifeless. By the way in terms of WHS, Bukhara is a great world heritage city with world class monuments and should be on everyone itinerary.