Talipach Gates

The Talipach gates have long stopped meeting caravans from the north or collecting the entry toll, but they remain one of the main physical reminders that Bukhara was a fortress city.

They were built in the sixteenth century under Abdullah Khan I as part of the defences. The walls that linked the city's eleven gates have not survived, and Talipach now stands in the middle of a grown city — among houses and gardens, which makes for a strange and strong impression.

The Karakul gates also survive, built to the same plan and architecturally identical. The Sheikh Jalal gates stood almost to the end of the twentieth century but finally gave way under the weight of time, collapsed, and what was left was taken by local people for building material.

Not far from Talipach are the Chashma-Ayub mausoleum, a place of pilgrimage, and the city bazaar. The gates themselves and the remains of the walls are part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing.