Chor-Bakr Memorial Complex

Five kilometres south-west of Bukhara, in the village of Sumitan, stands the Chor-Bakr necropolis — the four Bakrs. Building began in the sixteenth century; the place is known abroad as the city of the dead and is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

The necropolis is traced back to the Samanid era, and the village of Sumitan passed to the Juybari sheikhs under the first Uzbek dynasty, the Shaybanids. The first and principal burial was that of Abu-Bakr Sa'ad, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and founder of the Juybari line, which long shaped the political and spiritual life of Bukhara. Chor-Bakr gradually became their family cemetery: the ground filled with mausoleums and dakhmas — raised burial platforms — set in small courtyards entered through their own gates.

By the end of the sixteenth century, on Abdullah Khan's orders, a madrasah, a mosque and a khanaka were built at the centre of the necropolis as a gift to the Juybari. The three buildings bound the central square and make a surprisingly coherent ensemble. The fronts of the khanaka and the mosque are set with portals over generous arched vaults, while the side walls are built as two-tier loggias, which is quite unusual for buildings of this kind. In the early twentieth century a small minaret went up on the open side of the yard — a scaled-down copy of the Kalyan.

The northern part holds the Chor-bog garden, planted with ornamental and fruit trees, vines and roses. Two channels almost five kilometres long run to the garden from the city gates, lined with trees: they were dug so that Abdullah Khan could travel to Chor-Bakr in shade rather than under the blazing sun.

Burial customs changed over time, and by the nineteenth century every member of the family was interred here, women included. In Bukhara they say that if a pilgrim makes a wish and visits in one day the four tombs of the saints named Bakr, the wish will come true.