The Chor Bakr necropolis

The necropolis of Chor Bakr is located five kilometers west of Bukhara, in the village of Sumitan. The largest necropolis in Central Asia, the city of the dead, which is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Chor Bakr necropolis means “four brothers” or “four sheikhs” in Persian. The necropolis owes its name to the names of sheikhs Abu Bakr Saad, Abu Bakr Fazlu, Abu Bakr Muhammad and Abu Bakr Tarkhan, who were buried on its territory. 

The history of the necropolis dates back to the XVI century, when Khorasan and Transoxiana were ruled by the Iranian Samanid dynasty. Under the Samanids, the family of the Juybar Seyyids held ruling posts on the territory of Bukhara. Seyyid is an honorary title of the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad through his daughter Fatima and her son Hussein. The descendants of her second son Hassan bore the title of Sharifs. The very first burial of the City of the Dead is considered to be the grave of Abu Bakr Saad, who was the ancestor of the head of the Juybar Seyyids, and after his burial, all the other representatives of this clan were buried in the territory, which later became known as the necropolis because of the burial in the style of Khazira. This style is characteristic only of the Chor Bakr necropolis and is considered its distinctive feature. The graves of khazira have a funerary structure, the obligatory elements of which are a courtyard, strong and wide walls around and one entrance through a beautiful, painted gates. Thus, the necropolis consists of numerous streets, courtyards and gates, but instead of houses and people, tombstones are located inside each of them. The streets among the tombstones are paved with cobblestones, so the footsteps of visitors echo off the walls of numerous khaziras. 

The old part of the necropolis, built during the Samanids, consists of tombstones of representatives of the Juybar Seyyids and slabs of four Bakrs. 

When Abdullah Khan of the Sheibanid dynasty came to power, he decided to erect an ensemble consisting of a mosque, khanaka and madrasah on the territory of the necropolis. Khanaka has long been the haven of one of the most famous Sufi orders in the world - Khajagan, whose founder was Abdulkhalik Gijduvani. 

The main facades of the khanaka and the mosque are made in the form of a portal with high arches, and the walls are in the form of two-tiered loggias. These three buildings form a kind of architectural ensemble, in the center of which there is a courtyard and a pond. At the beginning of the XX century, a minaret was built in the courtyard, which is an exact copy of the Bukhara Kalyan minaret. 

In the northern part of the necropolis there is a Chor-bog garden, which abounds with a large number of trees, vineyards and rose bushes. Two ditches with a length of 5 km lead from the necropolis gate to the garden. The ditches were dug so that Abdulla Khan, when visiting the necropolis, walked not under the scorching sun, but in the shade of trees. 

The tomb of Abu Bakr Saad is located to the right of the khanaka, the graves of the other three sheikhs are also located in the old part of the necropolis. 

Over time, the former family tomb of the Juybar Seyyid dynasty grew into a huge city of the dead, where it was allowed to bury representatives of the nobility, aristocracy, sheikhs and women.

Visitors are amazed by the scale of the necropolis. Every tourist feels the breath of the world of the dead, and at the same time realizes the frailty of existence.

According to one of the beliefs, each of the visitors who, while visiting the necropolis of Chor Bakr, makes a wish, and then during the day visits the graves of all the four great Abu Bakrs, will surely find the fulfillment of his desire.