Poi Kalyan ("foot of the great") is the plaza at the base of the Kalyan Minaret. Three landmarks face each other around it:
Kalyan Minaret (1127) — built by the Karakhanid ruler Arslan Khan. At 45.6 m it was the tallest structure in Central Asia when built and has never fallen. Legend has it that Genghis Khan, seeing it in 1220, tilted his head so far back to look up that his hat fell off, and out of superstition ordered it spared while he razed the rest of Bukhara. In the 18th and 19th centuries, criminals were thrown from its summit — earning it the nickname "Tower of Death".
Kalyan Mosque (1514) — the second-largest congregational mosque in Central Asia after Bibi-Khanym. Capacity: 12,000 worshippers. Cool colonnaded galleries around a large open courtyard.
Mir-i-Arab Madrasa (1535) — funded by a Yemeni sheikh who was the spiritual advisor of the Uzbek Shaybanid dynasty. Unusually, it remained a functioning madrasa through the entire Soviet period and continues to train Islamic scholars today. Non-Muslim visitors can enter the courtyard but not the teaching rooms.
Bukhara in photos
A short visual companion to this entry — photographs of Bukhara from our travel archive.
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