Monuments are colour-coded by priority for your convenience.

🟢 Must-see main attractions.
🟡 Interesting places, slightly lower priority. "For enthusiasts" — bazaars, art spots.
⚪️ Places along the way, recommended for the full picture but not mandatory to visit.
Ways to get around: taxi 🚕   on foot 🚶
also restrooms 🚾, currency exchange 🏧 and places to have lunch 🍽

1. 🟢 🚶‍♂️/🚕 Lyabi-Khauz Complex 🚾🍽
The heart of old Bukhara. A 17th-century pond surrounded by madrasahs and a khanaka — a place where townspeople have drawn water, traded, and rested for centuries. Today it's home to cafés under centuries-old trees and a monument to Khoja Nasreddin.

2. 🟡 🚶‍♂️ Nasreddin Afandi Monument
A bronze Khoja sits on his donkey right by the pond. A folk wise man and trickster, a hero of Central Asian folklore — one of the symbols of Bukhara. A great spot for photos.

3. 🟢 🚶‍♂️ Nodir Devon-Begi Madrasah
A paradox of Bukharan architecture: built as a caravanserai, its portal is decorated with images of birds and lambs — a rarity in Islamic architecture. Today it houses craftsmen and souvenir stalls.

4. 🟡 🚶‍♂️ Kukeldash Madrasah 🏧
The largest madrasah in Bukhara (16th century) — 160 cells, accommodating up to 320 students at once.

5. 🟢 🚶‍♂️ Walk around the pond 🍽
Near Lyabi-Khauz, along the Shahrud canal, lies an ancient mahalla. We'll tell you about it and the nearby sights you can see right away or come back to later — souvenir shops, a synagogue, shopping.

6. 🟡 🚶‍♂️ Khanaka
A 17th-century hospice for Sufi dervishes, built at the same time as the pond. A small cross-shaped building with a dome — one of the three architectural "guardians" of the pond.

7. 🟢 🚶‍♂️ Toki Sarrafon Trading Dome 🏧🍽
One of three surviving 16th-century covered bazaars in Bukhara. Money changers used to work here. Now it sells souvenirs and Oriental miniature paintings.

8. 🟢 🚶‍♂️ Magoki-Attari Mosque
One of the oldest mosques in Central Asia — its foundation dates back to a pre-Islamic shrine. Partly sunk underground, as Bukhara's cultural layer built up over centuries. Today it houses a carpet museum.

9. 🟢 🚶‍♂️ Tilpak Furushon Dome 🍽
The second trading dome — the dome of the hat sellers. Another souvenir hub where you can rest in the cool air, see craftsmen's workshops, and an ancient hammam.

10. 🟡 🚶‍♂️ Tim Abdullakhan 🍽
Another domed trading structure.

11. 🟢 🚶‍♂️ Ulugbek Madrasah
One of three madrasahs built by the great astronomer Ulugbek in different cities. The Bukhara one is the earliest (1417). More modest than its Samarkand counterpart, but more authentic in spirit. Located on a "Kosh"-style square, mirroring the Abdulaziz Khan Madrasah.

12. 🟢 🚶‍♂️ Abdulaziz Khan Madrasah
A masterpiece of the 17th-century Bukharan decorative school. The interiors are covered with gold painting and mosaics so densely that almost no free space remains. One of the most richly decorated interiors in all of Central Asia.

13. 🟢 🚶‍♂️ The third dome: Toki Zargaron 🚾
The largest of the three domes — once home to jewelers. Today it houses jewelry workshops and shops selling adornments, just as it did centuries ago.

14. 🟢 🚶‍♂️ Poi Kalyan Complex
Bukhara's main architectural ensemble: the Kalyan Minaret (1127), the Great Mosque, and the Mir-i Arab Madrasah form a square impossible to look away from. Even Genghis Khan spared the minaret.

15. 🟢 🚶‍♂️ Mir-i Arab Madrasah
The only madrasah in the USSR that continued operating throughout the entire Soviet era. Still active today — tourists aren't allowed inside, but the façade with its turquoise domes is well worth lingering over.

16. 🟢 🚶‍♂️ Kalyan Mosque 🚾🍽
One of the largest mosques in Central Asia. Built in the 16th century on the site of an older mosque destroyed by the Mongols. Still active. If prayer isn't underway, you can step into the courtyard to admire the columns and the view of the minaret.

17. 🟢 🚶‍♂️ Ark Citadel
The center of ancient Bukhara — a citadel more than two thousand years old. The residence of the emirs until 1920, when Soviet forces stormed the city from the air. Today it houses a history museum. A tour of the Ark takes 40–60 minutes.

18. 🟡 🚶‍♂️ Shukhov Tower
Soviet constructivism amid an ancient city. A 1927 steel hyperboloid tower — a younger sibling of the famous Moscow original. An unexpected and photogenic clash of eras.

19. 🟢 🚶‍♂️ Bolo Hauz Complex 🚾🍽
The royal mosque of the emirs of Bukhara, with a lavish iwan resting on 20 wooden columns. It stands right across from the Ark — the emir would come here for Friday prayers, watching from a window of the citadel.

20. 🟡 🚶‍♂️/🚕 Chashma-Ayub Mausoleum 🚾
"The Spring of Job" — the place where, according to legend, the prophet Job struck the ground with his staff and a spring burst forth. A 14th-century mausoleum with an unusual Khorezmian conical dome. Inside is a museum of water.

21. 🟢 🚶‍♂️/🚕 Samanid Mausoleum
A gem of 10th-century Islamic architecture and one of the oldest surviving buildings in Central Asia. It survived the Mongol invasion by lying buried under a layer of earth. Its brickwork pattern changes appearance depending on the angle of sunlight.

* Stop times aren't listed here: souvenir and craft shops are found at every turn, so the time spent is highly individual.