SECOND TRAIN JOURNEY - SAMARKAND AND ARRIVAL IN BUKHARA

And so onward for our next train trip (post-Soviet but notice the identikit station design!?)


 

Bukhara ('Buxoro') is Uzbekistan's fifth-largest city (300k inhabitants) but I reckon that number must by doubled by all of the tourists.  The area has been inhabited for five thousand years, with the present city existing for about half that time, serving as a centre of trade, scholarship, culture and religion.

Our cab drops is in the Lyabi-Haus area, a plaza built around a pool in 1620 (Lyabi-Haus means 'around the pool' in Tajik) which is one of the tourist centres...


and to give you an idea of what I was looking at and the surrounding architecture




And, yes, the obligatory bridal couples in search of a picturesque backdrop


As well as pools, until the 1900s, Bukhara was watered by a network of canals where people gathered to gossip and wash.  As the water was not changed very often, the city became famous for plagues and water-borne diseases - the average age of the 19th century Bukharan is said to have been 32!  Luckily the Bolsheviks drained most of the pools...



The Madrassa Nadir Devonbegi is another which flouts the Islamic 'no live creatures' rule


 ...on the outside, at least


Our hotel is the very central Lyabi House Hotel with an attractive outside breakfast area off the inner courtyard

 



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