The house-museum Akbar

The unique house-museum of Bukhara, which today serves as a mini-hotel, gives an opportunity to touch the history in the ancient walls built at the end of the XIX century. 

The house, which today is called Akbar Khauz, was built in 1850 for a wealthy Jewish merchant. Its owner was a pawnbroker and a professional collector of antiques.  He so carefully collected his numerous and rich collection, carefully treated his house that after construction, the house has never been repaired, however, it is still in excellent condition. 

For unknown reasons, a Jewish merchant was forced to leave the city after selling his property to a Jewish family, which carefully preserved the traditions of the former owner of the house. 

The Jews who lived in Bukhara adopted the best traditions of Bukhara architecture in the construction of their houses, however, they always built with more chic than their Bukhara colleagues. 

Massive carved wooden doors lead to the house, passing through which the visitor immediately enters a large courtyard, along the perimeter of which a traditional two-story Bukhara house surrounded by aivan is built. Aivan is mounted on 21 beams and two carved wooden columns, the height of each is 8 meters. There is a large cellar under the aivan. In addition to aivan, there is a winter hall in the courtyard. 

In the rooms of the house, which are now used as a hotel, many antique and rare things have been preserved. The walls are decorated with unique Bukhara carpets, hand-embroidered and unique suzane. In the rooms you can find antique garments, ceramic dishes, antique jugs and trays, wedding hats. The walls of the rooms are decorated with carved niches, in which the owner of the house-museum Akbar keeps unique exhibits. 

Another of the unique exhibits of Akbar's house is the Koran, which was found during the renovation of the house, in its wall, by a woman who lived in Bukhara. It is likely that the previous owners of the house hid an old book in the wall during the Russian Revolution, when religion was banned. A woman presented a unique Quran of the XI century to the Akbar House Museum. 

The owner of the house – museum does not tire of repeating that all the things in the house are not his property, but the property of the whole humanity, these unique exhibits are part of art, time and space. Therefore, in the Akbar mini-hotel, you can slowly examine the exhibits and feel the warmth of the hands of the masters who once made them with your fingers. 

“What is civilization? These are not planes, cars and computers. Civilization is what tells you: be civilized, be decent with the people around you.”

Akbar, the owner of the museum house.