Bukhara

city · earth

Oasis city in the lower Zarafshan valley, west of Samarkand, and the capital of the Samanid emirate from 892 to 999, when it was among the foremost centres of learning in the Islamic world. Ibn Sina was born near it in 980. The Ismail Samani mausoleum of the ninth or tenth century is one of the oldest surviving monuments of Central Asian Islamic architecture; the Kalyan minaret dates to 1127 and survived the Mongol destruction of 1220. Its historic centre is inscribed by UNESCO as one of the most complete surviving medieval Central Asian towns.