Ark Fortress

(Bukhara) is considered to be the oldest and one of the most interesting sights of Uzbekistan. Her age - almost 2500 years. It is located a little west of the center of the modern city near the central square Registan. Initially, the ancient fortress was built as a protective structure, designed to protect the city from the raids of the belligerent neighbors of flaxos.

Today Ark is a magnificent monument of Bukhara, on the territory of which there is also a Childukhtaron mosque. The citadel is also famous for the fact that great writers and poets lived in its walls: Rudaki, Firdousi, Omar Khayyam and others. 

Ring tone The Ark Fortress in Bukhara For hundreds of years, the building has been destroyed and rebuilt more than once after wars and raids. However, its foundation is unshakable. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Ark - no less - the palace of the emir of Bukhara. The last attack of Ark survived already in our time - in 1920, when the Soviet government came to overthrow the last Bukharan emir, Seyid Alimkhan. Then the building was badly damaged by the bombing of the aircraft . THE construction and architecture of the Ark Citadel is located on top of a loose hill, which was the reason for the destruction of the walls of the first fortress, originally conceived in the shape of a polygon. Time after time the walls collapsed. But in the 7th century, one of the wise men advised to install seven supporting pillars in the shape of the Great Bear constellation.

After building successfully completed. She became a symbol of power and inaccessibility. In the 9-10 centuries, the descendants of Ismail Samani rebuilt and fortified the walls of the fortress. However, in the 13th century, the army of Genghis Khan broke the defense and almost completely destroyed it. But after another three hundred years, the Sheibanid dynasty returned to its structure its original appearance. The total perimeter of the walls is almost 800 meters, the area is of the order of four kilometer p OB..

TO get to this historical monument, you need to climb a hill along a long path. Entrance serving! two tall round towers connected from above not by a long gallery. Passing through the towers, you will fall into a wide corridor leading inside the fortress. But this is not just a corridor: there are “windows” in its walls through which you can see semi-basement rooms. They once housed a zindan (prison) and storerooms. A deeper dungeon was located deeper: it contained the worst offenders.

Legends and stories There are different versions of the birth of a fortress. However, the following legend is more often told: Siyavush (Siaush), the son of the Iranian Khan, founded the Ark in Bukhara and in pre-Islamic mythology - the image of a deity, Jacobi, who had been expelled from his homeland, arrived in Bukhara, saw a girl named Farangiz, a daughter local ruler Afrosiab. He willingly received a guest in his house and agreed to give his daughter a wife on the condition that the young man build a palace on the earth the size of a bull's skin. Siyavush acted slyly: he cut the skin into thin strips, tied them into one rope and girdled it with an area of   about 4 hectares. There and built a palace.Together with Farangiz Siyavush, he received the right to manage the lands received. After death, he was buried near her. Every tourist visiting Bukhara is simply obliged to see with his own eyes the Ark, this symbol of the power and might of the Bukhara rulers.