THE FORTRESS OF THE EMIR
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A symbol of the forbidden city, which stir Western spirits since the th century, the powerful crenellated walls surrounding the palace of the Amir as a huge crown regained their feudal feudal. Over the centuries, the ramparts were constantly rapiécés by new layers of bricks, consolidating the failed or destroyed parts of the attacks, but now the restoration has made them the éclat of the nine. This artificial hill of metres high was the residence of the lords of Bukhara. Twenty metres high, many of which are due to the stacking of the ruins of palaces and citadels destroyed and reconstructed in the same location, according to the conquest and looting of the city. The oldest foundations found on the site are over 2 500 years old, but the visible part today is the th. According to the legend of a th century boukhare historian, the founder of Bukhara would be the Prince Siyavush-ibn Keivakus. The young prince, fleeing his father, crossed the Jeihun (Amu Darya) and joined Afrosyab, the legendary king, founder of Samarkand. He was warmly welcomed and married with the daughter of Afrosyab. Siyavush built a citadel on his new lands, but came into conflict with his stepfather and he murdered him a few years later. His body was buried at the foot of his palace, near the door is, and the inhabitants of Bukhara vénérèrent his grave. In the 713 th century, the zoroastrian city was invaded by Arab conquerors, the citadel destroyed, and a mosque there in, instead of the temple of fire. Rebuilt by the Samanides and then by the Karakhanides, it was destroyed successively by the Kara-Kitaï and the Korezmshah then, in the th century, by the Mongols, who, faithful to their reputation, left only ashes. In the 800 th century, the Chaybanides began building a citadel worthy of their ambitions by raising an artificial hill 20 m in diameter and m high, but did not resist the attacks of the Nadir Shah. The palace that can be visited today dates back to the th and early th century Uzbek khanates. At that time, the Ark was a city in the city inhabited by more than 3 000 people. They included gardens, administrative buildings, stables, deposits, the Treasury, the armoury, stables, prisons, a mosque, the shrines, shops and the residence of the Amir, its women, members of his family and slaves attached to their service. Unfortunately, today only 20% of these buildings remain. In September 1920, the Bolshevik army, commanded by General Mikhail Frounze, fired the barrel on the citadel. A fire broke out, while the Amir Alim Khan was fleeing. It is assumed that he might have triggered it before fleeing. There is nothing left of the harem or the apartments of the members of the princely family. The visit begins with the western gate built in 1740 by Nadir Shah. The monumental door is flanked by two turrets. When Armin Vambery stayed in Bukhara in 1863, he called Ark «den de la tyranny» and stabbed to the thinking of the Westerners who were then imprisoned. The door was surrounded by fourteen worked bronze cannons, trophy of the Amir's victorious campaign against the Khanate de. She was also adorned with a missing clock in the unusual history. Giovanni Orlandi, the Italian horloger who made it, was kidnapped by slave traders in Orenburg in the middle of the th century. The Italian saved his head by promising the Amir to build a time-measuring machine. He then produced a telescope, which the Amir inadvertently left by a minaret. The Amir was capricious and not lassait the wonders of European technology, but the horloger was believed, obstinate, loved wine and refused to convert to Islam, which was fatal to him. He was the last European to have his head cut. The covered terrace above the door arch was intended for the Amir and the princely family, who were at the front of the door to attend the celebrations and public executions taking place on the Place Square. Under the portal, the only vestige of the th century, a vaulted corridor is pierced by twelve dark niches, narrow unsanitary prisons where the personal enemies of the Amir were imprisoned. One of the niches welcomed a lantern that burned permanently, to celebrate the memory of Siyavush. It is through this corridor that visitors enter Ark where the salesmen of memory replaced the prisoners. Most buildings such as the appartements apartments or khana khana were transformed into a museum. The corridor leads to the left on the Juma mosque or Friday mosque dating from the th century. By the end of the th, Amir Alim Khan, the last Amir, added the central iwan, and the famous artisan Usto Shirin Muradov was named at the beginning of the th.
The korunishkhana, or the throne room. The vast courtyard surrounded by iwan dates back to the th century. Almost completely destroyed during the 1920 fire, it was recently restored. In the iwan of the bottom of the courtyard lies the throne of the Amir in engraved marble made by craftsmen of Nourata in 1669. During the coronation and official demonstrations, the soil was covered with carpets. In the agorakhana, or musical pavilion, an orchestra ponctuait the various events of the day, and the traditional makom accompanied the exits of the Amir and all the official demonstrations that were taking place in the main place. In the west of the fortress, you can access a part still in the layout of the town, but it offers a splendid view of the monuments of Bukhara, especially Poy Kalon. You can also climb to latour in front of the fortress, on the other side of the boulevard. You will have a dominant view of the historic centre of Bukhara and Samani park on the other side. Given the state of the stairs, those who are prone to vertigo will abstain. Go to sunset, when the lights illuminate the walls of the fortress.
The prison of the Amir, the "Zindan" (Rue street, entrance north of Ark). Sadly famous, these prisons built in the th century were trying to compete with hell. On Friday, there were some prisoners of the chains lining their necks, and parents or compassionate bystanders could bring food for the week. The supreme punishment was perhaps not death, but a 6 m deep sink, the "black sink," where convicts were forgotten in the middle of rats and all the most voracious insects of creation. Ella Maillart reports that there were special bugs for the torture of prisoners by habituant them to raw meat. Some captives managed to survive several months. In 1839, an Englishman, Lieutenant Charles Stoddart, charged with entering into an alliance with the Amir Nasrullah, who was intrigued by the distress of the black well for failing to respect the Amir by wandering on horseback while he should have walked, and walking when he should have crawling. In addition, his mission letter was not from Queen Victoria. He stayed six months in the bottom of the hole before winning his grace by converting to Islam. He remained prisoner but had freedom to travel in the city and stayed in his own apartments. In September 1840, a light infantry captain in Bengal, Arthur Conolly, came to inquire about his compatriot's fate and try to issue it. Shortly after his arrival, the English army was defeated in Afghanistan at the Khyber Pass battle. The Amir, in a position of strength, persuaded by his advisers that Conolly was a spy, made the two men in the black well. In June 1842, Conolly refused to convert to Islam, and the two English officers were executed on Registan square, where, probably, their bodies still rested. Nothing is known about their death, but it is said that Stoddart, converted to Islam, died beheaded or stuck but without suffering. Conolly, who refused conversion, probably did not have that chance. The story is known thanks to the book that Conolly kept up to the bottom of his well, and was found by Reverend Joseph Wolff in 1845. He saved his head only by making the Amir laugh, shouting «Allah Akbar» thirty consecutive times, while prostrations himself. Hopkirk's book, The Great Game, also tells in detail the story of these two heroic victims of the great game. Mannequins today replace the most famous prisoners of the black well, but the two English officers are not represented. Outside the prisons lies the tomb of the Saint Kuchar Ata, dominated by the traditional perch, where prisoners had the right to practise religious rites.
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