Bukhara - Uzbekistan

2000 year old Bukhara has an old centre which evokes the many centuries of traders and travellers who’ve passed through here on their way between the Mediterranean and China. We spend the day exploring this fascinating Silk Road city including at its heart the historic Lyabi Khauz architectural complex with the oldest reflective pool in Central Asia. Until the Soviet period there were many such ponds, which were the city's principal source of water, but they were notorious for spreading disease and were mostly filled in during the 1920s and 1930s. The Lyab-i Hauz survived because it is the centrepiece of a magnificent architectural ensemble, created during the 16th and 17th centuries, which has not been significantly changed since. The Lyab-i Hauz ensemble, surrounding the pond on three sides, consists of the Kukeldash Madrasah (1568-1569) (the largest in the city (on the north side of the pond), and of two religious edifices built by Nadir Divan-Beghi: a khanaka (1620) (a khanaka is a lodging-house for itinerant Sufis) and a madrasah (1622) (that stand on the west and east sides of the pond respectively. The small Qazi-e Kalyan Nasreddin madrasah (now demolished) was formerly located beside the Kukeldash madrasah.