The most beautiful shrines and pilgrimage sites to visit Uzbekistan

The mausoleum of Mirsaid Bakhrom is located in the park behind the market. The portal of the domed mausoleum dates from the end of the 10th century. Its decoration, made with an arrangement of bare bricks, is reminiscent of that of the Samanides' mausoleum. Today the monument is endangered by the saline rises. Look at the bricks, you can see a large deposit of salt. The mausoleum is still an important place of pilgrimage, and the faithful can come there very early in the morning.

The khanaka Kasym-Sheikh is an architectural ensemble of the 16th century, consisting of a mosque with a small blue dome and a khanaka. Kasym Sheikh's grave is behind the mosque. The khanaka for pilgrim dervishes was built by Abdullah khan, a native of Karmana. There are several tombs of saints in the inner courtyard, as was customary in the khanaka. The place is quiet and rarely frequented, you will have to charter a taxi to get there and pay for the round trip plus the waiting time of the driver.

In the middle of a cemetery, this complex of mausoleums and mosques was built between the 9th and 16th centuries. Its origin is the wise Azrat Khussan Ata, who died there. Born in the city of Turkestan (now in Kazakhstan), in the ninth century according to the imam of the mosque, in the eleventh according to Soviet scholars, he would have gone as far as Mecca and returned here, in Poudina, to teach the Koran near an old tree near a basin he would have built. It is also here that, a few centuries later, Baha Al-Din Naqchband, the founder of the Sufi order in Central Asia, whose mausoleum is a few kilometres from Bukhara, is said to have come to learn here. Around the tomb of Khussan Ata, votive cloth and a ponytail bear witness to his high degree of wisdom. The main mausoleum houses the remains of the holy man and his daughter. The other three, again according to the Imam, contain those of Khussan Ata's brother and his sons, then those of the second brother and his wife, and finally those of the first brother's daughters. On the side of the Soviet researchers, one would rather consider that these are the tombs of nobles of the region. Whichever version you subscribe to, this site seduces by its timeless character and by the different aspects of its architecture, which spans some ten centuries. Moreover, the crossing of the village of Poudina and the reception of the old turbaned imams would be enough in themselves to justify the displacement.

The site of Bibi Seshanbe is located next to the village of Sultanabad. People come here on pilgrimage for its sacred water sources, below a small mausoleum. Around it, a pleasant park offers a cool walk. Families and pilgrims come here to spend the day, especially during the hot weather, because the place always remains cool, thanks to the springs. One lingers for selfies around the springs before joining in family a tchaikhana which makes it possible to be restored and to spend a pleasant moment around a takhtan.

Leaving Khodjaobad in the direction of the Kyrgyz mountains, Oman Ota is a place of pilgrimage and resort appreciated by the inhabitants of the region. People come to pray in a small mausoleum whose origin is not clear but which is very popular with women who come there to pray for pregnancy. All around, chaikhanas welcome whole families and groups of friends. Overhanging, the young lovers climb a small mountain up to a cave. There, out of sight, they can contemplate the horizon and make a wish

The sacred spring of Nourata, according to legend, was discovered by Hazrat Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed, who made the water gush out by planting his stick in the ground. The spring must have been known long before that time and its location at the foot of the Sogdian citadel may suggest that it was already venerated in pre-Islamic times. In the 10th century, a first mosque was built near the spring. The great Namazgoh Mosque was built on its foundations in the 16th century, with twenty-five domes supported by arches resting on solid pillars. This mosque went through a difficult period during the communist era when it was used as a granary. It is now reopened for worship. The courtyard facing it has been restored, perhaps with too much zeal: the century-old trees have been replaced by a paved courtyard surrounding a marble fountain. On one of its sides are exposed several engraved tombstones, one of which dates back to the Sogdian period.

Overhanging behind the basin is the tomb of the patron saint and founder of Nourata, Sheik Abdul Hassan Nouri, a Muslim missionary who came from Baghdad to Bukhara in the 8th century. Next to the basin, a deep well marks the holy spring. It is said that Karimov, the former President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, used to carry water from this holy spring. Pilgrims, on the other hand, come to drink it and bring back full bottles. In any case, thousands of very voracious carps attest to its purity.

A place of pilgrimage more for believers than for tourists. There is indeed a legend that claims that one of the wives of Ali, the prophet's son-in-law, was from this village, which would explain the presence of the symbolic tombs of his sons. A first mosque was built in 1246 to house the two long white tombs of Imam Hassan and Imam Hussein. It has been renovated in recent years, as has the small adjoining mosque.

The island of the Prophet is unfortunately inaccessible to visitors and even to archaeologists. On this island in the middle of the Amu Darya, a mausoleum was erected in the th and th centuries, where the Prophet Zul Kifl was born, whose name is quoted in the Koran.