Zindan Museum of the History of Judiciary

About

The Zindan stands a short walk from the Ark fortress and belongs to the Bukhara State Museum-Reserve. This former eighteenth-century prison was where the emir's authority and the severity of Sharia justice were made visible to the townspeople.

The word zindan comes from Persian and means simply dungeon. The building went up in the north-western part of the old shahristan and contains several cells, a punishment room and an underground chamber of fired brick. Its grimmest feature is the pit — roughly 6.5 metres deep — into which prisoners were lowered without light and with almost no air.

The exhibition covers the judicial system of the Bukhara Emirate from the late seventeenth to the early twentieth century: how hearings were run, what punishments existed, and the conditions prisoners were held in. Scenes are reconstructed life-size with figures of inmates and guards, alongside everyday objects and weapons of the period.

The museum shows a harsh side of Bukhara's past and makes the city's legal and social order easier to grasp. The complex lies within the Historic Centre of Bukhara, a UNESCO World Heritage site.