Ark of Bukhara

The Ark is the fortress-palace of Bukhara, a massive walled mound rising above the west side of the old city. Ark or arg means citadel in Persian. A fortress is thought to have stood on this spot for well over a thousand years, rebuilt many times; the present walls and buildings mostly belong to the last centuries of the emirs of Bukhara, the rulers of the city until 1920. The Historic Centre of Bukhara was inscribed by UNESCO in 1993.

The Ark is entered through a gateway between two towers on the west, reached by a long sloping ramp up the side of the mound. Inside was a small town: the emir's residence, a throne room, a mosque, the mint, the treasury, stables, prisons and quarters for officials. Its walls are of brick and earth, thick and sloping, around twenty metres high in places.

In front of the gate lies the Registan of Bukhara, the open square where public ceremonies and executions were held. In 1842 two British officers, Charles Stoddart and Arthur Conolly, were executed there by order of the emir, an episode of the rivalry between Britain and Russia later called the Great Game. In 1920 the Red Army stormed Bukhara and the last emir fled. Today the Ark holds museums of the city's history, and its walls glow ochre in the late afternoon.