Khoja Gaukushan complex

The oldest surviving mosque building in Central Asia, dating back to the 800s, reconstructed in the 1500s and now a carpet museum. "Magoki" means a pit, and it was in a dip in the ground when built over a former Zoroastrian temple, and has sunk further. It's now 6 metres below ground level, and its domes barely reach the street. "Attar" means perfume as there once was a perfume market nearby. The 12th-century main facade is very impressive.

There's been a substantial Jewish community in Bukhara since the 8th century. This synagogue was built around 1640, in legend as part of the peace deal with the widow who owned the Lyab-i Hauz site. It was closed down by the Soviets in 1940. Eventually it was returned, but the Jews had emigrated to Israel and the US so it was never again in use. It's now a small museum.

Xoʻjayev (1896-1938) was from a wealthy Bukhara family. He sought to free his country from both hidebound clerical tradition and Czarist rule, which pleased the Soviets, and he was leader of Uzbekistan from 1924. However he opposed the heavy-handed excesses of Stalin, such as cotton monoculture, so he was purged, given a show trial and shot. He has a mixed reputation today and this museum, his father's house, depicts life of a merchant family but says little about the man.

Citadel or kremlin that contained palaces, temples, barracks, offices, the mint, warehouses, workshops, stables, an arsenal; everything a ruler might want for his comfort, and for the misery of his captives. It's a heptagonal enclosure (said to be patterned on the constellation of Ursa Major) with earth brick walls up to 20 m tall. It was built and re-built for millennia, taking its present form under the Shaybhanid dynasty around 1500. You enter through the grand west gate and see the museum, throne room, royal courts and mosque. The eastern half has not been restored.

The name means "double madrassah", the Modari Khan and the larger Abdullah Khan, built together in 1566. They look neglected.

The name means "four minarets" and this building of 1807 was once part of a religious complex that has disappeared. Although it remains a mosque, the four towers are not minarets. One tower collapsed in 1995 but was re-constructed.