# Nurata town: Alexander's spring and Chashma

> A small oasis town at the foot of the Nurata mountains, containing the sacred Chashma spring, the ruins of a fortress said to have been built by Alexander the Great, and access to yurt camps.

Nurata ("place of light") sits on the desert-mountain interface between the Kyzylkum steppe and the Nurata range. It was a Silk Road stopover and remains a functioning pilgrimage site.

Key sites in town:

- **Chashma spring** — a natural underground spring producing 300–400 litres/second of clear water. Fed by karst formations under the Nurata range. Local legend traces the source to a strike of Ali's whip (Ali being Muhammad's cousin), so the pool is a Shi'a and Sunni pilgrimage site. The spring's fish — a form of dace with reportedly some resistance to darkness (a persistent local claim) — are considered sacred; visitors feed them bread. A small mosque and shrine complex surrounds the pool.

- **Nur Kala** (Nur fortress) — the eroded remains of a mud-brick fortress on the hill above the spring. Local tradition dates it to Alexander the Great's 329 BCE campaign into Sogdiana; more sober archaeology places it in the 3rd–4th century CE Kushan or Sasanian period.

- **Panjvakta Mosque** — small 16th-century congregational mosque in the old town.

Most visitors pass through Nurata en route to the Aydarkul yurt camps or as a lunch break on a Samarkand-Bukhara transit. A half-day stop is enough to see the spring and fortress.

The Nurata range immediately north of town is protected as a nature reserve and hosts eco-tourism trekking of 2–3 days, staying in mountain village homestays.

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Keywords: Nurata, Chashma, spring, Alexander the Great, pilgrimage
Updated: 2026-08-15
Category: destinations
URL: https://uzbguidedtours.com/kb/kb-nurata-town