THE WALLS OF BUKHARA

The city was fortified as soon as it was created. The Ark was a citadel surrounded by high walls, and the shakhrestan, the inner city, also possessed its place. And to protect itself from the nomadic attacks, the oasis of Bukhara was surrounded by a wide circle of tens of kilometres. It was consolidated in the th century after the Arab conquest. In the image of the city, these fortifications were frequently destroyed and rebuilt. At the end of the th century, Ismail Samani again rebuilt the wall surrounding the Bukhara oasis: " As long as I am alive, he said, I'll be the walls of Bukhara. During the reign of Abdul Aziz Khan, in 1540, the imposing walls protecting the city of the outside world were 12 km long and 11 m high, with 11 solid doors in two paved sides of turrets which remained closed during the night. The walls endured some affronts during the feudal wars but protected the city until the Russian conquest. In 1920, the Bolshevik army left only a few kilometres away, of which we still can see large swathes in the bazaar area and in the southwest of the city. The best preserved parties are just north of the mausoleum Ismail Samani, around the Talipoch Gate, once decorated with gold nails, and one of the only two that survived until the contemporary era. It was behind this door that, until the arrival of the Russians, the slave market, was replaced by the great Bazar bazaar. On Sunday, the bazaar goes far beyond the Allées Park where fowls is also organized.