UZ · Bukhara Region · 39.77°N 64.42°E

bukhara

Brick minarets, covered trading domes and tea beside an old town pond.

Best time
April–May and September–October are best for walking. July–August is baking hot, and December–February is cold.
How long
2–3 days
Getting there
About 8 hours direct from KL to Tashkent on Uzbekistan Airways, then about 4 hours on the fast train via Samarkand, or a short domestic flight. The station is in Kagan, about 20 minutes from the old town.
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UZ · Bukhara Regionbukhara39.77°N 64.42°Egowherelah.com
Dear group chat,Brick minarets, covered trading domes and tea beside an old town pond.— gowherelahTo: whoever’s drivingBukharaUZ, Bukhara Region
KLbukhara
≈ 5,535 km from KL, as the crow flies
Kalon-Ensemble in Bukhara (Uzbekistan)

Photo: Euyasik · CC BY-SA 3.0

1 / 5

Photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited on each.

Bukhara's old centre is small and flat enough to walk everywhere. Trading domes, brick mosques and madrasas sit a few minutes apart, around a pond shaded by old mulberry trees.

Makan

  1. PlovRice, carrots and lamb from a giant cauldron, best at lunchtime.Map ↗
  2. ShashlikLamb skewers grilled over charcoal, with raw onion and bread.Map ↗
  3. Halva and navatNutty halva and crystallised sugar to go with a pot of green tea.Map ↗

Things to do

  1. Po-i-KalyanThe 12th-century Kalyan Minaret, with a great mosque and the blue-domed Mir-i-Arab Madrasa facing each other below it.Map ↗
  2. Trading domesCovered bazaar crossroads from the 16th century, still selling carpets, metalwork and embroidered suzani.Map ↗
  3. Lyabi-HauzA pond ringed by old mulberry trees and teahouses, the old town's evening meeting place.Map ↗
  4. Ark and Bolo HauzThe emirs' mud-brick fortress and, across the road, a mosque with a porch of slender carved wooden columns.Map ↗
  5. Chor MinorA small gatehouse topped by four blue-domed towers, tucked away in the back lanes.Map ↗

Good to know

  • Stay near Lyabi-Hauz; everything in the old town is a short walk from there.
  • Plov is a lunch dish across Uzbekistan, and many places sell out by mid-afternoon.
  • As across Uzbekistan, meat in local restaurants is halal as a rule; pork turns up mainly in Russian and Korean places, and alcohol is widely sold.

Last checked October 2026. Things change, so check opening times, fees and transport before you go.