Travel to Bukhara, Uzbekistan (the holy) with Bob & Wilma

Bukhara is ancient place of habitation, a place that attracts the religious to it. It was a place of habitation for the Zoroastrian fire worshipers two centuries before the conquest of Alexander the Great. It also carried, for a while, the Buddhist Sanskrit name of monastery, "vikhara". 

A millennial before the arrival of Islamic Arabs, the Prophet Job struck the earth and brought forth a spring of water to ease the misery caused by a relentless drought.

With the Islamic religion came the beautiful architecture of the Islamic world.

Many unique and beautiful mosques were built, some with tall slender columns, or with arched and solid entrances

or towers most with lovely tile and/or brick work and all with a minaret to call the faithful to prayer.

The faithful would build mausoleums of great beauty as a final expression of their faith and schools,

madrassah,  were built to perpetuate the Islamic religion. Bukhara is a tolerant city and though we never saw any Christian churches,

there is a small but beautiful Jewish synagogue and to the south of the city a Jewish cemetery.

Now with the lack of Russian influence, there is a resurgence in the practice and interest of religion in Uzbekistan.

Photos and story courtesy of Bob & Wilma.

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