MAGOK-I-ATTARI MOSQUE
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Before the Arab conquest, this site was home to a market and a Buddhist temple, then a Zoroastrian temple dedicated to the moon. The first mosque was built in the 9th century - making it the oldest in Central Asia - using existing foundations. It was completely rebuilt in the 12th century, then remodeled in the 16th. However, following destruction by Genghis Khan's troops, it disappeared and was only discovered in 1839 by Chichkine, the same archaeologist who had uncovered the Samani mausoleum in the cemetery.
Excavations also brought to light the mosque's 12th-century south portal. Chichkine also uncovered traces of a5th-century Zoroastrian temple and an even older Buddhist temple. An architectural palimpsest that explains why the floor of the mosque lies some 4.50 metres below the earth's surface. This is why the origin of the name comes from "maghākī", which in Persian means "in a ditch". A name with a very colourful meaning that reflects its history: " agok " meaning "underground" and " attor ", "merchant".
Already, when the east portal was built in the 16th century, the entrance had to be adapted to the change in street level, and a staircase with wide steps descends unusually steeply to the entrance of the building. Today, the mosque is used as a carpet showroom. To the east, wells extend into the earth to where the Buddhist temple once stood.
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