Don't be a tourist, be a traveler, world in motion
EnglishUSDNewsletterWimup Videos ↗
Top 10AsiaUzbekistan

Top 10 Things To Do in Bukhara

Country
Uzbekistan
Best months
Apr · May · Sep · Oct
Population
~280K
Language
Uzbek and Tajik (Russian widely spoken)
Budget / day
$30–70
Quick answer

Bukhara is the most complete medieval city left in Central Asia, and almost all of it is walkable. Start at the Poi Kalyan ensemble, cross the covered trading domes to the pool at Lyabi-Hauz, and give a separate morning to the Ark and the Samanid Mausoleum at the western end. Two full days cover the old town. A third buys the summer palace, the Naqshbandi shrine and the necropolis outside it.

Samarkand has the bigger monuments. Bukhara has the city. The mosques, madrasas and covered bazaars here still sit on the lanes, pools and canals that connected them, which is why UNESCO listed the whole historic centre in 1993 rather than a handful of set pieces. Nothing is more than a twenty-minute walk from anything else.

The 10 best things to do in Bukhara

1

Poi Kalyan

Landmark· Khodja Nurobobod Street, Bukhara

The city's central set piece, and the one to see first. The Kalyan Minaret went up in 1127 under the Karakhanid ruler Arslan Khan, rises 45.6 metres in fourteen bands of patterned brick, and was the tallest thing in Central Asia for centuries. Genghis Khan sacked Bukhara in 1220 and spared it. Facing it are the Kalyan Mosque and the Mir-i-Arab Madrasa of the 1530s.

Time60–90 min
CostSquare free, mosque ticketed
Best atFirst light
TipThe mosque courtyard is nearly empty before 8am
Map
2

The Ark of Bukhara

Fortress· Registan Square, Afrosiyob Street, Bukhara

A royal citadel raised on the mound of every fortress that stood here before it, occupied for well over a thousand years and the residence of the emirs until 1920. Red Army shelling gutted most of the interior, so what survives is the western third: the coronation court, the Friday mosque, the mint and the reception hall.

Time60–90 min
CostTicketed
Best atLate afternoon
TipThe ramparts give the best view of Bolo Hauz opposite
Map
3

Samanid Mausoleum

Mausoleum· Samanids Recreation Park, Bukhara

A cube of baked brick the size of a small room, and the oldest funerary monument standing in Central Asia, built at the turn of the ninth and tenth centuries for the Samanid dynasty. There is no tile and no paint: the whole effect is brick laid in basketweave and disc patterns that change as the sun moves. Flood silt buried it, so the Mongols never found it.

Time30 min
CostTicketed
Best atMorning
TipChashma-Ayub is a two-minute walk on through the same park
Map
4

Lyabi-Hauz

Square· Bahouddin Naqshbandi Street, Bukhara

The last of the open reservoirs that once watered Bukhara, dug in 1620 and framed on three sides by stone steps, mulberry trees and teahouses. The Kukeldash Madrasa of 1568 sits on the north side; the Nadir Divanbegi buildings face each other across the water, one carrying a mosaic of two phoenixes at a sun with a human face.

Time45 min
CostFree
Best atEvening
TipOrder tea at the pool edge and pay the tourist premium once; it is worth it here
Map
5

The trading domes

Bazaar· Khakikat Street, Bukhara

Four domed crossroads built in the sixteenth century, each roofing a junction of the bazaar street and each named for the trade that held it: Toqi Zargaron for the jewellers, Toqi Telpak Furushon for the hatmakers, Toqi Sarrafon for the money changers. They are not a museum. Scissors, carpets, suzani and spices still change hands under them.

Time60 min
CostFree
Best atMid-morning
TipPrices soften noticeably the further you get from Lyabi-Hauz
Map
6

Chor Minor

Landmark· Chor Minor Street, east of Lyabi-Hauz, Bukhara

Four brick towers under blue domes, usually dated to 1807 and built by a Turkmen merchant. It is not a mosque and never was a whole building: this is the gatehouse of a madrasa that has otherwise disappeared, which is why it stands alone down a residential lane. Each tower is decorated differently, and nobody agrees on what the four stand for.

Time20 min
CostFree outside
Best atGolden hour
TipFollow the signed lanes east from Lyabi-Hauz rather than the main road
Map
7

Bolo Hauz Mosque

Mosque· Afrosiyob Street, opposite the Ark, Bukhara

The emirs' own Friday mosque, built in 1712 directly across from the citadel so the ruler had only to cross the square. The building is modest; the iwan in front of it is not. Twenty slender painted columns hold up a deeply carved ceiling, and the pool doubles them, which is where the local name, the mosque of forty columns, comes from.

Time30 min
CostFree from the pool
Best atLate afternoon
TipShoot it from the far side of the water, not from the steps
Map
8

Ulugbek and Abdulaziz Khan madrasas

Madrasa· Khakikat Street, Bukhara

Two madrasas facing each other across a narrow street with 235 years between them, which makes this the best free lesson in Central Asian architecture here. Ulugbek built his in 1417, before the famous one in Samarkand, and it is the oldest surviving madrasa in the region. Abdulaziz Khan answered it in 1652 with painted vaults and gilding, and left it unfinished.

Time45 min
CostTicketed
Best atMidday
TipStand in the middle of the street and look at one, then the other
Map
9

Sitorai Mokhi Khosa

Palace· Sitorai Mokhi Khosa, north of Bukhara

The summer palace of the last emirs, a few kilometres north of the old town, and the place where nineteenth-century Bukhara met imperial Russia head on. Local craftsmen worked alongside architects from St Petersburg, so a carved plaster hall opens onto Russian parquet and a room lined in mirrors. The clearest picture of how the emirate ended.

Time60–90 min
CostTicketed
Best atMorning
TipA taxi from the old town takes about 15 minutes each way
Map
10

Bahauddin Naqshband Memorial Complex

Shrine· Kasri Orifon, Kagan District, Bukhara Region

The burial place of Bahauddin Naqshband, who died in 1389 and whose order became the most widespread Sufi brotherhood in the Muslim world. This is the busiest pilgrimage site in Uzbekistan, and it does not feel like a monument: the courtyards are full of families and the mood is that of a working shrine. Walk quietly rather than sightsee.

Time60 min
CostFree, donations expected
Best atFriday morning
TipCover shoulders and knees; women should carry a scarf
Map

8 of the 10, mapped

Bukhara · 8 spots
AllLandmarksMuseumsFoodFree

Bukhara travel FAQ

How many days do you need in Bukhara?+
Two full days cover the old town without rushing: one for Poi Kalyan, the trading domes and Lyabi-Hauz, one for the Ark, Bolo Hauz and the Samanid Mausoleum. A third day buys the summer palace at Sitorai Mokhi Khosa, the Naqshbandi shrine and the Chor Bakr necropolis, which all sit outside the city.
Is Bukhara or Samarkand better?+
They answer different questions. Samarkand has the larger monuments and the Registan, but they stand as set pieces in a modern city. Bukhara kept the whole medieval town around its monuments, so the lanes, pools and bazaars still connect them. Most people who see both prefer Bukhara for atmosphere and Samarkand for scale.
Do you need a visa for Uzbekistan?+
Citizens of more than 90 countries, including the EU, the UK, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and South Korea, enter visa-free for up to 30 days. Everyone else applies for the e-visa online before travelling at e-visa.gov.uz. Check your own nationality before booking, as the list has been widened repeatedly.
When is the best time to visit Bukhara?+
April to early June and September to October. Bukhara sits on the edge of the Kyzylkum desert: July averages daily highs above 32°C and can pass 39°C, and the old town has almost no shade. Winter is cold and can be snowy, but the monuments are empty and the light is good.
How do you get from Tashkent to Bukhara?+
The Afrosiyob high-speed train is the sensible option, running via Samarkand in just under four hours and booked online at the national railway site up to 45 days ahead. Flying to Bukhara airport takes about an hour in the air but adds two transfers. Trains arrive at Kogon, 15 km outside the city.
Monuments

Best monuments in Bukhara

The old town holds far more than the ten above. These six repay stepping off the main axis.
All 6 monuments →
Samanids Park

Chashma-Ayub Mausoleum

12th–16th century · Ticketed

Built over a spring legend attributes to the prophet Job, with a conical Khorezm dome unlike anything else here. Inside is the water museum.

Map
South of Lyabi-Hauz

Magoki-Attori Mosque

12th century · Ticketed

The oldest surviving mosque in Bukhara, its carved twelfth-century portal excavated metres below today's street. It now houses the carpet museum.

Map
Lyabi-Hauz

Kukeldash Madrasa

1568 · Free courtyard

The largest madrasa in Central Asia when it was finished in 1568, with around 160 student cells over two floors. It closes Lyabi-Hauz.

Map
Khodja Nurobobod Street

Khoja Gaukushan ensemble

16th century · Free

A sixteenth-century mosque, madrasa and minaret built on the site of a slaughterhouse, which the name records. The courtyard is usually empty.

Map
North of the Ark

Bukhara Zindan

Ticketed · 20 min

The emirate's prison, on the wall north of the Ark, kept as a small museum with the guard rooms and the deep holding pit. Grim and quick.

Map
Northern edge

Talipach Gate and the city wall

16th century · Free

Bukhara had eleven gates in a wall that ran for kilometres. Talipach is one of two that survive, with a broken run of mudbrick rampart.

Map
Trading domes

Best trading domes in Bukhara

Four sixteenth-century covered markets, each named for the trade that held it. All four still sell things.
All 4 trading domes →
Poi Kalyan end

Toqi Zargaron

Jewellers · Free

The jewellers’ dome and the largest of the four, marking the northern end of the bazaar street where it meets Poi Kalyan. Gold, silver and knives, mostly.

Map
Mid-bazaar

Toqi Telpak Furushon

1571 · Free

The hatmakers’ dome, built in 1571 and the busiest of the four, with five streets converging under it. Karakul hats, embroidered skullcaps and miniature paintings.

Map
Lyabi-Hauz end

Toqi Sarrafon

Money changers · Free

The money changers’ dome, closest to Lyabi-Hauz and built over the line of the Shakhrud canal. Now carpets, ceramics and copper.

Map
Off Khakikat Street

Tim Abdulla Khan

1577 · Free

Not a crossroads but a covered silk hall, raised in 1577 for Abdulla Khan II. It is the darkest and coolest space in the bazaar, and still the place carpets are sold.

Map
Museums

Best museums in Bukhara

Most of Bukhara’s museums sit inside its monuments, run as branches of the state museum-reserve.
All 4 museums →
The Ark

Bukhara State Museum-Reserve, at the Ark

History · Ticketed

Founded in 1922 and headquartered in the citadel, with permanent displays on the city’s history, its manuscripts and coins, and the court rooms of the last emirs.

Map
Samanids Park

Museum of Water Supply

Ticketed · 30 min

Inside Chashma-Ayub: waterskins, copper vessels and ceramic pipe, telling how a desert city on no river drank for two thousand years.

Map
South of Lyabi-Hauz

Carpet Museum

Ticketed · 30 min

Opened in 1991 inside the Magoki-Attori mosque, showing Uzbek, Turkmen and Persian carpets, saddlebags and yurt bands from the eighteenth century onwards.

Map
Old town, west

Fayzulla Khodjaev House-Museum

Ethnography · Ticketed

The restored townhouse of a merchant family, laid out as it stood at the end of the nineteenth century. The best picture of domestic Bukhara.

Map
Restaurants

Best restaurants in Bukhara

Bukhara eats early and plainly. These five are the dependable tables in and around the old town.
All 5 restaurants →
Khujarushnoy Street

Minzifa

Uzbek · Rooftop

A rooftop terrace in a house said to be over 150 years old, looking across the domes. Uzbek dishes and a short European list; book the terrace.

Map
Near Lyabi-Hauz

Old Bukhara

Uzbek · Courtyard

A courtyard kitchen near Lyabi-Hauz working a wood-fired oven in the open, which is where the plov and the samsa come from. The terrace fills early.

Map
M. Iqbol Street

Chinar

Uzbek · Local

A local rather than a tourist room, and the better plov for it, with lagman and shashlik on the same short menu. Away from the monument circuit, so prices drop.

Map
Khodja Nurobobod Street

Chasmai Mirob

Uzbek · Terrace

Terrace tables with the Kalyan minaret in the frame, which is what you are paying for. The Uzbek staples are solid and the service is used to visitors.

Map
Lyabi-Hauz

Lyabi House

Uzbek · Poolside

Tables on the edge of the pool under the plane trees, with a long list of Uzbek dishes. The most obvious table in Bukhara, and still the one to take.

Map
Craft workshops

Best craft workshops in Bukhara

Bukhara’s trades never stopped. Four places where you can watch the work rather than only buy the result.
All 4 craft workshops →
Near Lyabi-Hauz

Ustoz Shogird miniature workshop

Miniature painting

The applied art centre run by the painter Davlat Toshev, near Lyabi-Hauz, where Persian-style miniatures are painted on silk paper.

Map
Old town

Blacksmith workshop and museum

Metalwork

A working forge where a family of smiths, now a seventh generation, hammer out the stork-headed scissors Bukhara is known for.

Map
Bukhara

Gold embroidery workshops

Zardozi embroidery

Zardozi, the gold thread embroidery that dressed the emirs, is still worked here, and the surviving workshop employs more than a hundred people.

Map
Old town

Bukhara Handicraft Development Centre

Mixed crafts

Several trades under one roof in a restored caravanserai: ceramics, wood carving, weaving and embroidery, with makers working in the cells around the courtyard.

Map
Neighborhoods

Best neighborhoods in Bukhara

The old town crosses in twenty minutes on foot, but it is not uniform. Four quarters worth naming.
All 4 neighborhoods →
Central

Lyabi-Hauz

Pool and teahouses

The social centre: the pool, the teahouses, three madrasas and the mulberry trees. Where the old town eats, and the easiest base to sleep in.

Map
Central

Poi Kalyan and the bazaar street

Monuments and shops

The monumental spine, running from the minaret through the trading domes. Busiest between ten and four and almost silent at dawn.

Map
South of Lyabi-Hauz

The Jewish quarter

Historic quarter

Bukharan Jews lived in these lanes south of Lyabi-Hauz for centuries and gave the city its own dialect. The synagogue on Sarrafon Street still functions.

Map
West

Registan and the Ark

Citadel and parks

The western end: the citadel, the square in front of it, Bolo Hauz across the road, and the Samanid park beyond. Quieter, greener and where the museums cluster.

Map
Day trips

Best day trips in Bukhara

Four places within an easy taxi ride, all of them Silk Road rather than scenery.
All 4 day trips →
Sumitan

Chor Bakr Necropolis

5 km west · 2 hours

A city of the dead five kilometres west at Sumitan, built for the Juybar sheikhs in the sixteenth century, with storks nesting on the minaret.

Map
Gijduvan

Gijduvan

45 km · half day

A town 45 km northeast and the home of a ceramics school run by one family for generations, working the yellow-green glaze that marks its pottery.

Map
Vobkent

Vobkent Minaret

Late 12th century

A late twelfth-century Karakhanid minaret standing alone in a town northeast of Bukhara. A slimmer, plainer cousin of the Kalyan.

Map
North-west

Varakhsha

Pre-Islamic ruins

The excavated palace of the Bukhar Khudats, the rulers who preceded the Arab conquest, out in the desert northwest. The wall paintings are in museums now.

Map
What's on

Festivals & annual events in Bukhara (2026)

Time your trip around the city's biggest dates.
1 January

New Year

A public holiday and the one winter date when the old town has any crowd. Museums and monuments keep short hours around it.

8 March

International Women’s Day

A public holiday taken seriously across Uzbekistan. Offices and many shops close; the monuments stay open.

21 March

Navruz

The Persian new year and the biggest date in the Uzbek calendar, marked with concerts, family visits and sumalak.

Moves with the lunar calendar

Ramadan Hayit (Eid al-Fitr)

A public holiday closing the fasting month. Restaurants keep normal hours through Ramadan, but the shrine is at its busiest.

9 May

Day of Remembrance and Honour

A public holiday for the war dead, with wreath-laying at the memorials. A quiet civic day rather than a festival.

Late May or early June

Silk and Spices Festival

Bukhara's own festival: craft fairs across the old town, ikat and suzani stalls, folk music and a closing concert.

Moves with the lunar calendar

Qurbon Hayit (Eid al-Adha)

The feast of sacrifice, a public holiday and the second of the two big religious dates. Expect full trains and full guesthouses.

1 September

Independence Day

Uzbekistan marks 1991 with concerts and fireworks. Bukhara stages its events on the squares before the main monuments.

Getting around

Bukhara transport & airports

How to arrive and move around the city.
BHK

Bukhara International Airport

A small airport about 5 km east of the centre. The core of the schedule is the Tashkent shuttle, with a few routes to Istanbul, Moscow and the Gulf. Fifteen minutes by taxi.

Map↗ Uzbekistan Airways
Rail

Afrosiyob high-speed rail

The fastest way in. Afrosiyob trains run from Tashkent via Samarkand in just under four hours, and from Samarkand in about 90 minutes. Book well ahead: seats sell out.

Map↗ Book tickets
Bus

Getting in from the station

Trains do not stop in Bukhara itself. The station is at Kogon, 15 km southeast, and the transfer is a 20-minute taxi or a marshrutka. The minibuses stop by early evening.

Map
Taxi

Taxis and getting around

The old town is walkable end to end and largely closed to cars, so walking is the transport. For the summer palace and the shrines, use Yandex Go: it works here and prices in advance.

Traditional food

Must-try dishes in Bukhara, Uzbekistan

The classics to order before you leave.

Bukharan plov

The regional version of the national dish: rice, mutton, carrot and onion in a kazan, with chickpeas.

Shashlik

Skewers grilled over charcoal at the front of half the restaurants in the old town.

Lagman

Hand-pulled noodles under a peppery mutton and vegetable sauce. Ordered as soup or fried; fried suits summer.

Manti

Large steamed dumplings of minced lamb and onion, served with sour cream. Four or five to a plate.

Samsa

Baked, not fried: the pastry is slapped onto a tandoor wall and comes out blistered, with lamb inside.

Bukharan non

The round flatbread stamped with a chekich before baking. Every region has its own pattern.

Shurpa

A clear mutton broth with whole potatoes, carrot and chickpeas, poured over the meat. A cold-day dish.

Halva

Bukhara sells its own dense sesame halva by weight in the trading domes, alongside nishalda for Navruz.

Bukhara fact sheet

Bukhara at a glance

The essentials worth knowing before you go.
Country
Uzbekistan
Region
Bukhara Region (Buxoro viloyati), south-central Uzbekistan
Population
About 280,000 in the city, around 2.0 million in Bukhara Region (2024)
Founded
Settled for well over 2,000 years; historic centre listed by UNESCO in 1993
Nickname
Bukhoro-i-Sharif, Noble Bukhara
Language
Uzbek and Tajik, with Russian widely spoken
Currency
Uzbek som (UZS)
Time zone
Uzbekistan Time (UTC+5), no daylight saving
Calling code
+998 65
Airports
Bukhara International (BHK), about 5 km east
Power
220V · plug types C and F
Emergency
112 unified · Fire 101 · Police 102 · Ambulance 103
Ideal length
2–3 days
Getting around
On foot, then Yandex Go
Tourism board
↗ Website

Interesting facts

  • The Kalyan Minaret was finished in 1127 and stands 45.6 metres tall. Genghis Khan sacked Bukhara in 1220 and left the tower standing.
  • The Samanid Mausoleum survived the Mongols because it had already vanished: flood silt buried it, and it was dug out in the last century.
  • Ulugbek built his Bukhara madrasa in 1417, before the more famous one in Samarkand. It is the oldest surviving madrasa in Central Asia.
  • Mir-i-Arab, begun in the 1530s, kept teaching through most of the Soviet period as one of a handful of madrasas permitted in the USSR.
  • Bukhara was watered by canals feeding open reservoirs called hauz. Most were filled in the 1920s and 1930s; Lyabi-Hauz is the last big one.

Headed to Bukhara?

Get our one-page Bukhara cheat sheet plus a fresh destination every Thursday.