Mosques, Madrasahs, and more in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

The sights to see in Bukhara!! Wow. Wow. Wow.

Kalan Mosque - in the center of Bukhara:

The historic center of Bukhara:

The tower structure shown above is the Great Minaret - Kalyan Minor - and was built in 1123.
Reading about this minaret (click the link on the name above), it is also called Tower of Death because criminals would be thrown to their death from the top. Ghengis Khan even ordered the tower to be spared when all surroundings were destroyed - apparently because he was so impressed by the tower. Wow!

I think this is the Nadir Divan-Beghi Madrasah within the Lyab-i Hauz area:

Arabic calligraphy and beautifully detailed tiling:

Sudoku break!

exploring Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Bukhara, like Samarkand, was a major stop along the Silk Road trading route. It was very interesting to visit and explore. I really enjoyed walking around. There was so much to see (about 140 monuments!). We would turn a corner and be amazed at an entirely new sight.

One of the public baths - not used anymore but they used to be central places throughout the city:

An old mosque seemingly deserted and not used anymore - near to where we stayed:

"Arch, park, bazaar"

The lady at the guesthouse gave Jaime and directions to find the large market in Bukhara. She took us outside the front door of the guesthouse, pointed down the road and then said, "Ark, park, bazaar." - Her directions worked!

When we departed the next day, we thanked the lady and all three of us said together, "Ark, park, bazaar." I'm not sure this comes off as well written as it did in person and the way she said it - but we all loved it and it was a cute bonding point.

Jaime at the front of the fortress:

The Ark - the wall of Bukhara's fortress:

Registan Square, Uzbekistan

Registan Square was the public square in Samarkand, where royal proclamations were read aaaaaand a place for public executions (Wikipedia article here).

The Registan is enormous, stunning, and captivating. Jaime and I knew that we wanted to get to this sight, yet it was still quite incredible to walk up to from the side and have the mosques expose more and more into view.

Our first day was raining and cloudy. We went back to the Registan the next morning before departing the city and it was a beautiful blue-sky day!

Panoramic of the 3 madrasahs (Islamic schools):

Sher-Dor Madrasah

Tilya-Kori Madrasah

Looking at the front of Ulugh Beg Madrasah:

arriving in Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Jaime and I traveled from Tashkent to Samarkand by train. The train was great.

We took a taxi to the hotel that we requested the travel agency book for us. We had to book all of our trains and hotels (and some of our taxi services) through a travel agency in order to get the invitation to Uzbekistan for the tourist visa. This wasn't a problem at all and actually made our week of traveling very easy... BUT... we arrived to the hotel, a lovely hotel, and were told that we did not have a reservation.

Checking in with the travel agency, we found out that they had booked us at a different hotel. Uhhhh fine but we wish we had been told that!

So... this hotel, that we are sad to leave, calls another taxi for us (the front entrance of this hotel opens to a space holding two amazing look mosques). We get in this taxi and then the driver sits at the entrance to a roundabout for a few minutes. He's on the phone... his walkie talkie... and asking us where the hotel is. (I love when taxi drivers ask me where we are going! Not.)

Turns out that the hotel we have a reservation at is a couple of years old but not many people know about it. We had the same issue with two other taxi drivers later on, not knowing where the hotel is or have ever heard of it. By then, Jaime and I could guess on how to get there through the maze of streets, one-ways, and dead ends.

The name of the hotel had the same name of a large mosque, Bibi-Khanym, so the driver went in that direction and we stopped a few times to ask people along the way. (Oh, it's been raining this whole time too. Just to add to all that's going on and not knowing where we're going.)

At one point, the driver asked a man on the side of a street, then took a sharp left turn and there was a HUGE wall next to us on the left-hand side of the car. Come to realize - this wall is one of the outside walls of the mosque. We turn the corner and then he slows down and is about to go down a VERY steep ramp.

I look at Jaime and say, "Oh. No. We. Are. NOT!" (She laughed about that for a long time!) Jaime's taller than I am and could see from the back seat of the taxi that this wasn't a ramp, but stairs.

The taxi guy thought he was SO funny, making us think that he was going to drive down the steps! Sheesh.  : P  I fell for it!

Turns out that the taxi stayed put and we had about a 50-meter walk or so down a sidewalk to get to the hotel.

We finally made it! The hotel was nice and the area turned out to be great, just like the other hotel.

Bibi-Khanym Mosque as seen from Bibikhanum Hotel is shown below. (As I'm typing this and I try to go to the hotel's website to link the name, the webpage won't open. TripAdvisor lists it but shows no prices. The hotel was great - but no wonder we couldn't find it and no one seemed to know about it!)

A panoramic of the mosque:

A couple early sunset views from a rooftop at the back of the hotel that I climbed up to:

Blue Mosque - Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul

Wow. The Blue Mosque (or Sultan Ahmed Mosque) is incredible. Built in the early 1600's, this is a structure not to be missed if visiting Istanbul. I recommend reading more about this mosque on the Wikipedia page here.

This is really the one sight we went to see in the city.

I wasn't too keen on waiting in the loooooong line that wrapped around half the mosque... but Jaime new that the inside was supposed to be worth it. Thankfully, I think we had turned up right before it opened for the afternoon after the mid-day closure. The line moved rather quickly once the mosque opened up to visitors again.

It was free to go inside. We had to take our shoes off and wear disposable slippers. It was crowded inside - but mainly because of how incredible the inside is to see!!

I missed a good photo of the lights that were hanging. Thousands of lights were low throughout the mosque... and the domed ceiling was just stunning. WOW.