ABSTRACT
Bokhara has been known all over the East as Boohara-i-Sharif, meaning 'Boohara the holy for centuries its halo of saintliness was enhanced by its immunity from any sort of foreign desecration. Bokhara is a crowded place: its massive crenellated walls allow of no expansion. The huge gates, facing each of the main roads, are closed at sunset and opened at sunrise. Bokhara's chief discomfort is the lack of water. Right in the middle of the city there is one great tank overshadowed by huge trees. Its old stone steps, as well as the causeways above them, are crowded with tea-houses and barbers' shops, so that the whole place has more of the atmosphere of a quiet little fair, or perhaps a club, than of a street. The one striking architectural feature of Bokhara is the great minaret, a tall, round brick tower of the seventeenth century, covered by a decoration of raised geometrical patterns formed by the brickwork.
