Chor Minor ("four minarets" in Tajik) was built in 1807 by the Turkmen merchant Khalif Niyaz-kul as the gatehouse of a small private madrasa. The main teaching building is gone; only the gatehouse survives.
Design features: - Four corner towers, each ~19 metres tall, each topped with a different decorative motif said to represent the four world religions the wealthy merchant respected (Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism — an unverified but popular local reading). - The towers are decorative — none contains a working staircase for muezzin call to prayer. - The blue-tiled cornice bands remain remarkably intact.
It sits in a residential neighbourhood a 10-minute walk north-east of Lyabi-Hauz. There's a small charge to climb up the rooftop for a photograph; the view over Bukhara's flat old town is best in the last hour of daylight.
In 1998 one of the towers cracked and partially collapsed after heavy rain; UNESCO funded emergency repairs that finished in 1999.
View as raw markdown — optimised for AI agents, LLMs, and programmatic consumption.
Related entries
- Places
Lyabi-Hauz: Bukhara's cafe pond
A 1620 stone-lined reservoir surrounded by mulberry trees and three religious buildings. The city's outdoor living room, day and night.
- Places
Bukhara's trading domes: covered bazaars from the 16th century
Three surviving covered market crossings — Toki Zargaron (jewellers), Toki Sarrafon (money-changers), Toki Telpak Furushon (hat-makers) — built by the Shaybanids around 1570.
- Places
Ismail Samani Mausoleum: the oldest brick building in Central Asia
Completed around 905 CE, this tiny brick cube is the oldest surviving Islamic building in Central Asia and a UNESCO-listed masterpiece of Samanid architecture.
- Places
Poi Kalyan: Kalyan Minaret, Mosque and Mir-i-Arab
The heart of medieval Bukhara: a 47-metre 12th-century minaret Genghis Khan spared, a Timurid Friday mosque, and the still-functioning Mir-i-Arab madrasa.
- Places
The Ark: Bukhara's royal citadel
A 5th-century-BCE walled fortress that served as home to Bukhara's rulers until 1920. Roughly 80% is still in ruin from Bolshevik shelling.
- Places
Amir Timur Museum: Timurid history in Tashkent
A domed museum on Amir Timur Square containing manuscripts, weapons, coins, and 3D models tracing Timur's empire from Samarkand to Anatolia.