BUKHARA WALLS
The city was fortified from the very beginning. The Ark was a citadel surrounded by high walls, and Shakhrestan, the Inner City, also had its walls. And to protect itself from nomadic attacks, the oasis of Bukhara was surrounded by a wide enclosure of several tens of kilometres. It was consolidated in the 8th century, after the Arab conquest. Like the city, these fortifications were frequently destroyed and rebuilt. At the end of the ninth century, Ismail Samani had the wall surrounding the oasis of Bukhara rebuilt again: "As long as I am alive," he said, "I will be the wall of Bukhara. "During the reign of Abdul Aziz Khan in 1540, the imposing walls that protected the city from the outside world were 12 km long and 11 m high. They had 11 sturdy double doors flanked by turrets that remained closed at night. The walls suffered some clashes during the feudal wars, but protected the city until the Russian conquest. In 1920, the Bolshevik army left only a few kilometres of it, large parts of which can still be seen today in the bazaar district and in the south-west of the city. The best-preserved parts are just north of the Ismail Samani Mausoleum, around the Talipoch Gate, once decorated with gold nails, and one of only two that have survived to the present day. It was here, until the Russians arrived, that the slave market was held, which has since been replaced by the great bazaar Kolkhoznaya.
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