Catalog

Bukhara: Old and New
ADB Review [ October 2005 ]

By Ian Gill, (igill@adb.org)
Principal External Relations Specialist

Bukhara is a Silk Road city that has survived the ravages of both time and invaders. Its madrasas, royal fortress, and remnants of a huge market span 1,000 years of history.

Yet as well as being home to dozens of historic monuments, Bukhara is also a city of youth and promise. It has three universities and several schools. Although many factories from the Soviet era are running at much-reduced capacity, new businesses are starting up, says Lola Fataeva, of the local Business Women’s Association.

Bukhara used to have a network of canals and dozens of stone pools that were meeting places for people to wash and gossip. Some of these pools have been restored, such as one in Samani Park, beside the elegant mausoleum of Ismail Samani, founder of the dynasty under which Bukhara flourished in the 9th and 10th centuries.

FATHER AND SON feed the ducks	COLORS Matching colors of new generation and historic mosque (above); a historic monument (right)
	YOUNG AND OLD an elderly lady with pram by the canal (above); young girl in Samani Park (left)	CHILDREN a young trio in front of Samani mausoleum

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