Bukhara is one of the most attractive and legendary cities in the world, where the Kalyan minaret is a minaret of the Po-i-Kalyan mosque complex in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. It is the most prominent landmark in the city, which had been captured and destroys several times and restored again. Anyone can get a general idea of the city by having upstairs in the Kalyan Minaret situated in the territory of the Pio-Kalyan complex.
The beautiful minaret actually is designed by Bako, and it was built by the Qarakhanid ruler Muhammad Arslan Khan in 1127 to summon Muslims to offer prayer five times a day. It is made in the form of a circular-pillar baked brick tower, narrowing upwards. The minaret is 149.61 ft high and the body of the minaret is topped by a rotunda with 16 arched fenestrations, from which the muezzins summoned the Muslims in the city to prayer.
The minaret is also famous as the “Tower of Death” because until as recently as the early twentieth century criminals were executed by being thrown from the top. This is the most remarkable sightseeing of Bukhara, which served as a lighthouse for the caravans going through the desert. The Minaret has real greatness when the forces of Genghis Khan entered the ancient city destroying everything on their way, the great commander’s cap fell when he raised his head to look around the minaret.
He said: “Such great that forced me to take off the cap!” Genghis Khan gave credit for its superiority and didn’t destroy it. There is a brick spiral staircase that twists up inside around the pillar to the rotunda. The tower base has narrow ornamental strings belted across it made of bricks which are placed in both straight and diagonal fashion. The frieze is covered with a blue glaze with inscriptions.
In ancient war times, the warriors normally used the minaret as a watchtower to the observatory of the enemies. The Kalyan Minaret still dominated the skyline of Bukhara, surprising all who see it with its wonderful and flawless shape. The minaret is famous and startlingly recent, its use was for public execution, where those condemned to die were thrown from the rotunda at the top to the stone courtyard below.
The last recognized execution took place in late 1920,s during the Russian Revolution. If you’re traveling to Bukhara Uzbekistan, then spare a lot of time for sightseeing, and we’d be sure you wouldn’t want to miss out on the top attractions of Kalyan Minaret.
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