The 1500 year old walls of Bukhara have protected the Ark, the court of the ruler, until finally being decimated by the Russians in 1920. They have since been reconstructed, as I’m sure they have many times in the past and are now an iconic sight in this ancient city.
Visiting Ark of Bukhara
I’ve seen photos of the Ark of Bukhara many times and it has long been on my wish list to visit. We finally got there in 2023 with a tour of Uzbekistan, detailed on my blog here. Uzbekistan is a lovely country to travel around and getting geared up for tourism. The Ark of Bukhara is a centre point of the city and signposted from within the old city. There are plenty of the little electric cart taxis to take you there or regular taxis or just walk, the old city is pretty small. The ticket office is inside the main gate as you go up the access ramp.
My Experience
The Ark of Bukhara has been the fortress of the Emirs for around 1500 years, although during that time it was damaged and rebuilt many times. The final conquest by the Russians in 1920 resulted in the almost total destruction of the fortress and very little original work is left today. The restoration has focused on a couple of internal rooms and the walls either side of the entrance ramp – if you go further round the walls are reduced to just a pile of mud. This doesn’t in anyway distract from the awesomeness of the building and how impressive it must have looked in its heyday.
We went inside the fortress and there are a few small museums, some with lovely 19th and early 20th century photos of the old city and some of the Emirs, the last one dying in Afghanistan in 1947 after the Russians took over Bukhara in 1920. There was also the coronation room, where the Emir would meet foreign dignitaries although this was completely destroyed so it has now been partially restored. It does give an idea of the splendour and wealth of the Emirs, if you use some imagination.
There is also a walk into the archeological area, basically all the internal areas they haven’t restored and a walk along the restored section of the walls. There is one small badly damaged mosque to see and that’s about it, the rest is rubble. The views from the walls are good but it’s best to go mid afternoon as otherwise you’ll be photographing straight in to the sun. I probably spent as long outside the Ark, walking up and down the route of the ramparts, as I did inside and an hour is more than enough.
I wanted to see the Ark of Bukhara from above so went in to the Observation Tower, paid the 50k Soms (£3.50) and waited for the lift. The viewing platform was originally a Russian era water tower, standing on spindly metal legs just opposite the Ark. It was a quick ride to the top and I tried not to look at the rusting metal structure as the lift climbed the floors! I hate heights so it wasn’t easy to walk around but the view over the Ark and mosques, minarets and madrasas was impressive and worth 5 minutes of stress! There were signs around the top of the platform showing distances to major cities, London was 5099km!
Ark of Bukhara Photo Gallery
History
The history below is copied from the Wiki page here:
The Ark is built on the remains of earlier structures, which constitute a layer twenty meters deep under the base arch, the layers indicating that previous fortresses had been built and destroyed on the site.
The first known reference to the Ark is contained in the “History of Bukhara” by Narshakhi (899 – 960). Abubakr wrote “Bindu, the ruler of Bukhara, built this fortress, but it soon was destroyed. Many times it was constructed, many times destroyed.” Abubakr says that when the last ruler to rebuild asked counsel of his wise men, they advised him to construct the fortress around seven points, located in the same relation to each other as the stars of the constellation Ursa Major. Thus built, the fortress was never again destroyed.
The age of the Ark has not been established accurately, but by 500 CE it was already the residence of local rulers. Here, in the fastness of the citadel, lived the emirs, their chief viziers, military leaders, and numerous servants.
When the soldiers of Genghis Khan took Bukhara, the inhabitants of the city found refuge in the Ark, but the conquerors smashed the defenders and ransacked the fortress.
In the Middle Ages the fortress was worked on by Rudaki, Ferdowsi, Avicenna, Farabi, and later Omar Khayyám. Here also was kept a great library, of which Avicenna wrote:
“I found in this library such books, about which I had not known and which I had never before seen in my life. I read them, and I came to know each scientist and each science. Before me lay gates of inspiration into great depths of knowledge which I had not surmised to exist.”
During the Russian Civil War, the Ark was greatly damaged by Red Army troops under the command of Mikhail Frunze during the 1920 Battle of Bukhara. Frunze ordered the Ark bombed by aircraft, which left a large part of the structure in ruins. There is also reason to believe that the last Emir, Mohammed Alim Khan (1880–1944), who escaped to Afghanistan with the royal treasury, ordered the Ark to be blown up so that its sacred places (especially the harem) could not be desecrated by the Bolsheviks.
References
This site gives information on visiting the Ark
There is a nice Lonely Planet guide to the Ark here
The site has a nice history of the Ark