In the old days, the fortress was the palace of the bek of the Bukhara emir. The monumental building is located in the west of the capital, in Hissar. The walls of the fortress were not less than a meter thick, the guard was on duty at the loopholes for guns. The territory with a garden and a pool, as well as wide staircases leading to the main entrance with terraces, which were bricked, unfortunately did not survive to the present. The same applies to the building of the former palace itself. Only the preserved huge gates remind of the grandeur of the old building, which give an idea of the grandeur of the fortress. But these remnants are impressive. The cylindrical towers connected by a lancet arch look rather magnificent. During construction, burnt brick was used. These gates are a striking example of the architectural technique that was used to build almost all the gates of Bukhara in the 18-19 centuries.
Impressive structure @Farhod87 and I really like how well preserved it looks. They clearly still want it to look like it did when it was first built and that’s great to see.
I’ve never actually thought about visiting Tajikistan. Do you have other interesting sites you would recommend visiting?
Hi Farhod! Amazing images. I love the place and used to visit the fortress every month when I lived in Dushanbe. One thing worth pointing here is that this is not the original Hissar fortress. In an effort to “preserve” this gem, the authorities took most of the ruins down and rebuilt the fortress in the image of the one that dating back several centuries. As a result of this atrocious disregard for the historical and architectural heritage, the fortress was not included in the UNESCO World Heritage list.