Ark of Bukhara

The Ark is the oldest continuously used site in the city. People have built on this mound for well over a thousand years, rebuilding after each siege and fire, so the sloping brick walls you see today are mostly from the last few centuries of the emirate. A covered ramp leads up from Registan Square through the main gate into the fortress.

Inside was a small town of its own: the ruler's quarters, a mosque, offices, stores, a mint and stables. Much of it was destroyed when the Red Army took the city in 1920, and large parts of the interior are still empty ground. What remains includes the throne courtyard, a Friday mosque with a carved wooden porch, and rooms with displays on the history, coins and crafts of the region.

Walk around the outside of the walls as well as through the inside; the scale of the citadel is easiest to understand from the square below it and from the Bolo Hauz mosque opposite.