Ark of Bukhara

The Ark of Bukhara is the ancient fortress and royal city that served as the centre of political and religious power in Bukhara for over a thousand years, from the early Emirate of Bukhara through the Khanate of Khwarezm to its final years as an imperial Russian administrative centre. The structure occupies the highest point in the old city and is entered through a monumental gate that opens onto a series of courtyards arranged in a hierarchy of public and private spaces. The outermost walls are massive and unadorned, built to withstand siege, while the inner courtyards and reception halls are faced with painted and gilded tiles that reveal the wealth and sophistication of the Bukharan court. Within the Ark complex there is a throne room, a mosque, residential quarters for the emir and his household, and a treasury, all arranged around courtyards that follow the traditional plan of a Central Asian palace. The Summer Mosque of the Ark, with its painted ceilings and marble floor, is one of the finest interior spaces in the complex.

The Ark is closely associated with the famous poet and philosopher Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna, who spent several years working in Bukhara in the eleventh century and references the Ark and the city in his autobiographical writings. The fortress is mentioned in the accounts of numerous Silk Road travellers, from Xuanzang in the seventh century to the Russian explorer Dmitry Livensky in the nineteenth, and these accounts provide a continuous thread of documentation for the building across more than a millennium. Today the Ark is a museum complex, and visitors can walk the battlements for views over the historic city. The Masjid Jami, the Friday mosque of Bukhara, lies just outside the Ark walls and is one of the oldest surviving mosques in Central Asia, with a current form dating mainly from the sixteenth century. The scale of the Ark walls, which reach twelve metres in height in places, gives a clear sense of why this was the fortress that no Mongol or Timurid army ever successfully stormed. The nearby Lyabi-Hauz ensemble, built around an artificial pool in the seventeenth century, is one of the most charming public spaces in Bukhara and provides a pleasant contrast to the military severity of the Ark. The area around the Lyabi-Hauz is also famous for its afternoon tea houses, where visitors can rest under the mulberry trees after exploring the fortress.

The Ark of Bukhara is the ancient royal citadel of Bukhara, Uzbekistan. A fortress-palace complex occupying the highest point in the old city, it served as the centre of power for over a thousand years.