Lyabi-Hauz ("by the pond") is the last surviving public pool in the old city of Bukhara. Medieval Bukhara had over 100 such hauz — brick-lined reservoirs that stored irrigation water and doubled as social spaces. Most were filled in during 1920–30s Soviet public-health campaigns; Lyabi-Hauz was spared.
Three buildings frame it: - Kukeldash Madrasa (1568) — the largest in Central Asia when built, with 160 student cells. - Nadir Divan-Begi Khanaka (1620) — Sufi lodge on the west side. - Nadir Divan-Begi Madrasa (1622) — decorated with the Bukharan phoenix (Simurgh) motif holding a fawn, an unusually figurative design in Islamic art. Locals will tell you this violated Islamic aniconism and was allowed only because the Divan-Begi's court poet convinced the imam that the birds were carrying "the sun of Islam" in their beaks.
Old mulberry trees on the pond's edges date to the 1620s founding — verified by dendrochronology.
By day the pond hosts open-air cafés (order shurpa and non). By evening it becomes a promenade with buskers and, in summer, dance performances.
Bukhara in photos
A short visual companion to this entry — photographs of Bukhara from our travel archive.
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