1220February 1220 · Bukhara
Genghis Khan takes Bukhara
Bukhara had been the Samanid capital and a centre of Islamic learning for centuries when Genghis Khan's army took it in 1220, early in the Mongol conquest of the Khwarazmian empire. The city was sacked and burned, and chroniclers say Genghis told its people he was the punishment of God. The Kalyan Minaret, legend says, was spared because the khan admired it.
Sites
- Site 1: Kalyan Minaret and Po-i-Kalyan ensembleThe minaret of 1127, with the great mosque and madrasa beside it.Map ↗
- Site 2: Ark of BukharaThe citadel where the last defenders held out after the city fell.Map ↗
- Site 3: Samanid MausoleumTenth-century brick tomb, among the oldest monuments of Islamic Central Asia.Map ↗
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