Places linked to a character to visit Route de la soie

This magnificent and immense residence belonged to a large trader built in the late nineteenth century. Centered around a set of four inner courtyards, where the family arranged according to the seasons in the 40 respective pieces, broken down by the famous badgir, the rooms opened and connected to the pieces of the house that allowed them to break down and cooled the temperature, the house presents an exceptional range covering more than 5,000 m ². Here again, stained glass, decorative motifs, moldings are in all parts and illustrate the perfect mastery of Persian architects. Note on the main court iwan the complex moldings of the ceiling. They took back the designs and patterns of the carpet that was laid on the ground. The courtyard, with its gardens and ponds, is flanked by a shaded thumb to allow, as with the iwans, not to suffer too much from the temperature. The whole is logically oriented north-south.

Under his real name Louis Marie Julien Viaud (1850-1923), Pierre Loti was originally a naval officer, which allowed him to travel and thus consolidate a basis for his future writings. It was during a trip to Oceania that he decided to take the pseudonym Loti, named after an exotic flower (1867). With a very open mind, Loti feels close to the different cultures he meets during his travels, but Constantinople marks him for life. Her second trip to Istanbul (1879) allowed her to meet the woman who would give her name to her famous novel, Aziyadé, the Caucasian woman. Every time he is in Istanbul, he likes to come to Eyüp, in this café overlooking the Golden Horn. The "sacred mountain" he cites in his Aziyadé is that of this coffee. Surrounded by parks and gardens, and then known as Rabia Kadın Kahvehanesi, the café is gradually being mentioned with the name of the writer. After having changed hands several times and almost disappeared, it was bought back in 1964 to be restored to its original state. It is clear that at the time, the view must have been idyllic, because the beauty of Altın Boynuz (Golden Horn) was such that songs and poems loved to tell it. The clear waters of the Kağıthane river flowed into the inlet, the outline of which is described as green. Things have changed a lot, but the panorama remains unique, especially when it lights up at sunset, while the songs of the muezzins rise.

The house of the former President of the People's Republic of Turkestan dates from the end of the 19th century and was built by the father of Fayzulloh, a wealthy Bukharian merchant. An admirable job has been done to reproduce the interior of this house as it was until 1925, when it was transformed into a school by the Bolsheviks. Many murals and period furniture can be admired in the rooms surrounding the three inner courtyards of the house. The rooms of the ichkari, the part of the house reserved for the family, have beautiful period beams and walls with small niches in the style of the old houses of Bukhara. These niches, before finding a decorative vocation, were used as storage spaces and allowed to do without furniture. The iwan, extraordinarily decorated with warm colours and geometric patterns, is made of elm wood that had to be restored many years before it was completed. To get the full measure of this exceptional house, it is best to make an appointment and subscribe to a guided tour (usually in English). You certainly won't regret paying the extra charge for taking pictures either. In the courtyard, note the bust of Fayzulloh Khodjaev. It used to sit in the southwest corner of Liab-i-Khaouz and was cut in three so that it could be reintegrated into the house of its model.

The family house of the most famous Uzbek pottery. Exhibition-sale.