My guide book showed a Jewish Cemetery and Synagogue on the town map. I was curious to explore these places and was surprised to know that Jews had settled this far east (as we are never taught anything about Central Asia). I was told my hotel is actually in the Jewish Quarter and these places were not far. My hotel itself was a converted Jewish merchants home.Jews had always played an important role in the success of all Islamic Empires and were welcomed and hel...

Continuing past the bazaar district we came to Lyab-i-Hauz which was a large plaza built with a pool. On one side is the Divanbegi Mosque al Khanaka which used to house Dervishes. The long rectangular side is home to the Kukeldash Madrassa. While the far end has the Divanbegi Madrassa.First we went into the former Dervish home. This is now a semi museum and antique store showing some historic photographs, rugs, and interesting ceramics.On one side of the artifici...

Leaving the Emir's Summer Palace we drove back to the old town beside close to the Kalon Tower. We then walked a few blocks east to two Madrassas where I began exploring last night when I first arrived in BukharaThere were a lot more tourist stores setup that hadnt been in the evening when I came yesterday.Interesting were several craftsmen selling sword and other weapons. As I only had hand luggage there was no way I would be able to buy and transport any of the...

After lunch we made an unscheduled stop to the Emirs Summer Palace which was not part of the tour. Since I had my own driver and guide for the day I was going to add some extras as we had some spare time for the dayThe palace is a few kms north of the old city centre so we got to drive away from the old town and see a bit more of the city. We passed by some bazaars and more modern looking retail plazas.Aside from some parks and roundabouts with interesting sculpt...

Leaving the Old Town we walked back out a few city blocks to two twin Madrassa's facing each other. These were in a poorer state of repair being a little further out from the Old City.With so many buildings is hard to restore everything and will be a slow process working their way down from the most prominent ones.We passed by a Puppet Theatre which I thought was a Soviet addition but my guide explained it was a traditional local custom which I wasnt aware of.The...