Bukhara - cultural and an administrative centre of Buhara region. In city there are 3 higher educational institutions, libraries. The largest is the regional library of name Avitsena numbering in the storehouses about 3000 books. Here manuscripts of great Avitsena, poets Rudaki, Dakiaki, Phirdousi, historian X of a century are stored. Archaeological excavations conducted by the Uzbek Academy of Sciences (expedition led by A. Mukhamedjanov) have releaved thick cultural layers, i.e. rtaces of ancient settlements in locations providing favourable conditions of life. It has been established as fact that Bukhara never changed its site but grew vertically. In archaeological cross sections of almost 20 metres thick there have been discovered the remnants of dwellings, public buildings, and fortifications. These have been dated on the basis of the artifacts associated with them: ceramic pottery, fireplaces, coins bearing images and inscriptions, jewellery, tools of artisan, i.e. everything that is associated with the activities and culture of human society. The lower layers (3rd- 4th centuries B.C. to the 4th centuty A.D.) of the period of antiquity are the thickest. The upper layers are those of the Medieval city (from the ninth to the beginning of the twentieth centuries). That means that Bukhara is at least 2.500 years old, just like Samarkand. The name of Bukhara originates from the word "vihara" which means "monastery" in Sanskrit. The city was once a large commercial center on the Great Silk Road. The Great Silk Road went through Bukhara. Here there were more than 60 caravan-sarays (hostels), where stopped the merchants from India, China, Iran and other. countries. Bukhara lies west of Samarkand and was once a center of learning renowned throughout the Islamic world. It was here that the great Sheikh Bahautdin Nakshbandi lived. He was a central figure in the development of the mystical Sufi approach to philosophy, religion and Islam. Such was Bukhara at the time of its conquest by Arab caliphate. Incursions, diplomatic talks, sieges and battles began as early as the year 673 A.D. In 708 Bukhara fell and became a province of Arab caliphate. With arrival of the Arabs in VII cent. Islam was spread in Bukhara. From this time there started to be built mosques and minarets, Madrassah and cult complexes. In Bukhara there are more than 350 mosques and 100 religious colleges which attract tourists from all over the world. Its fortunes waxed and waned through succeeding empires until it became one of the great Central Asian Khanates in the 17th century. The country’s vassalage from caliphate continued well into the ninth century, even after power in the region was taken by Samanids, a local dynasty of rulers. The Samanids minted coins bearing the names of the ruling caliphs and paid taxes to the caliphate treasury irrespective of their almost complete political and economic independence. At the turn of the century Bukhara developed into major cultural and religious centers of the Islamic world. It became known as the “dome of Islam”.

Bukhara with more than 140 architectural monuments is a "town museum" dating back to the middle Ages. The minaret, which draws visitors up its 105 steps to see a panoramic view of the city, was once the tallest structure in Central Asia. It has been called the “Tower of Death,” because, legend has it, executions were often performed by throwing the condemned from its heights. In truth, however, locals will tell you that only one such killing occurred from the tower.
Yet the city has witnessed some brutal executions; perhaps the most infamous were the killings of British officers Col. Charles Stoddart and Capt. Arthur Conolly in 1842. Victims of a misunderstanding between the Emir of Bukhara and the British government (which failed to supply its emissaries with the appropriate gifts and royal letters of introduction), the two were imprisoned in the Bug Pit at the Zindan (city jail), then forced to dig their own graves before their ceremonial beheading in front of the Ark (the Emir’s palace).

The Ark now houses a museum on the city’s history, and the Zindan is now a tourist attraction, showcasing such skin-crawling rooms as the Bug Pit, a torture chamber and the dungeons.
Bukhara, with its population of a quarter of a million, is a major tourist attraction for travelers following the old Silk Road. Celebrating its 2,500th anniversary in 1997, the city has been working hard to put its best old face forward. And though Bukhara’s mud-colored buildings are often a let-down to visitors who’ve just seen the dazzling mosaics of Samarkand, the city’s subdued desert hues and centuries-old buildings exude their own exotic air of ancient culture.