Ark of Bukhara, Uzbekistan :
The name refers to the massive, 1500 years old fortress at the centre of Bukhara, a 2000 year-old town which played an important role in the Silk Road trade and the Islamic renaissance. As such, it was attacked countless times by a variety of players, including the Sāmānids, Qarakhanids, Karakitais, Mongols, Timurids, and the Shaybānids, who made it the capital of their own state, the khaganate of Bukhara. All entered after long sieges, because these 20m high walls were only breached by Genghis Khan and the bombs dropped by the Red Army during the Russian civil war.
An important oasis in the Kyzylkum Desert, Bukhara became a famous centre of learning, mentioned by all the important philosophers of the Islamic Golden Age including Omar Khayyám and Ibn Sina, also known as Avicenna, who died in 1037 CE, and is considered to be the father of modern medicine. He had this to say about the library inside these walls :
“I found in this library such books, about which I had not known and which I had never before seen in my life. I read them, and I came to know each scientist and each science. Before me lay gates of inspiration into great depths of knowledge which I had not surmised to exist.”
📷 : Credit to the Owner
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