Bozori Kord Baths (operating continuously since the 16th century)

About

The hammam is a Bukharan sight in its own right and was once a central part of city life. As early as the tenth century the historian Narshakhi wrote about the custom of going to the baths and noted that several were working in Bukhara; the best known was the Hammam Khan, the khan's bath. By the middle of the nineteenth century the city had around sixteen — Tashkent and Samarkand had roughly ten each.

They were usually built as part of bazaar complexes and public buildings, and a khan might have a private bath in his palace, staffed year-round at any hour. Baths divided into city-wide, or bazaar, baths and neighbourhood ones. The bazaar baths stood by the trading centres and were the largest and busiest: Hammam Gavkusho, Hammam Khoja Porso, Hammam Sarrafon — and the oldest of them, the seventeenth-century Hammam Bozori Kord. Most Central Asian baths had a single bathing chamber, so men's and women's days alternated strictly through the week.

The layout inside is standard: a reception, a changing room and the bathing chambers. Outside it is a single-storey domed building, set at a crossing of busy streets or among the trading rows. Hence the frequent name Hammam Kunjak, the corner bath.

Two old baths survive well in Bukhara: the men's Bozori Kord by the Taqi-Telpak Furushon dome and the women's Hammom Kunjak by the Kalyan minaret. Bozori Kord, for all its age, is still working.

Visitors are given a towel, a lungi — the sheet you wrap yourself in for the steam room — and sandals: the floor is very hot in places and the marble is slippery. There is a rest room with herbal tea, and massage, including therapeutic and relaxing kinds. Abu Ali ibn Sino wrote about the benefits of the bath in his Canon of Medicine.

Open 07:00 to 15:00, Wednesday to Monday; closed Tuesday.