Kalon minaret

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Kalon minaret

The Kalon Minaret (Great Minaret) is a minaret in the Uzbek city ​​of Buxoro . It is considered a symbol of the city.

location

The minaret stands in the middle of the historic center of Buxoro in the Poi Kalon building ensemble , which is located southeast of the Ark Citadel . It stands in the southeast corner of the square between the Kalon Mosque , to which it is connected by a bridge, and the Mir Arab Madrasa . To the east of the minaret is the Emir Alim Khan Madrasa .

history

The Kalon minaret was about 1127 under the Qarakhanid Arslan Khan built the 1102 to 1130 as a vassal of the Sultan of the Seljuks part ruler in Transoxania was. Genghis Khan is said to have been so impressed by the building that he had it spared when Buxoro was destroyed. During the conquest of Bukhara by the Bolsheviks in 1920, the minaret was slightly damaged by warning shots.

In addition to its function as a minaret, from which first a muezzin , and later several, called the Muslims to prayer , the tower fulfilled other tasks. On the one hand it served as a watchtower and on the other hand it was a sign that was visible from afar and showed the caravans the way into the city. Until the early 20th century it also served as a place of execution , from which those sentenced to death were thrown down in a sack.

description

The minaret is an approximately 50 meter high, tapering tower with a base diameter of more than 10 meters. At its upper end it widens to form a rotunda , which is decorated like stalactites and contains a circumferential gallery with 16 pointed arched windows. Above this rotunda sits a conical tip.

The tower is built as a brick shell. As with the Samanid mausoleum, the bands surrounding the tower are provided with different patterns through different arrangements of the bricks. In the lower part, a band of writing runs around the tower, and directly below the stalactite-like ornamented rotunda runs a band of blue-green glazed bricks and forms a contrast to the natural ocher of the fired bricks. It is the oldest known example of the use of paint as an additional decorative element to the arrangement of the bricks.

Inscriptions on the tower name the year of construction 1127, the founder Arslan Khan and the builder Usto Bako.

  • Location in the cityscape

  • Muster

  • Tape

  • Stairs inside

  • rotunda

literature

  • Klaus Pander: Kalan Minaret . In: Central Asia . 5th updated edition. DuMont Reiseverlag , 2004, ISBN 3-7701-3680-2 , chapter Bukhara, the noble , p. 153 f . (DuMont art travel guide).
  • Bradley Mayhew, Greg Bloom, John Noble, Dean Starnes: Kalon Minaret and around . In: Central Asia . 5th edition. Lonely Planet , 2010, ISBN 978-1-74179-148-8 , chapter Bukhara , p. 261 .

Web links

Commons : Kalyan minaret  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mayhew: Central Asia , 2010, p. 261
  2. ↑ Kalon Minaret, Bukhara. www.adrastravel.com, accessed April 15, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b c Pander: Zentralasien , 2004, p. 153
  4. ↑ Kalon Minaret, Bukhara. In: www.advantour.com. Retrieved November 26, 2016 .

Coordinates: 39 ° 46 '32.52 "  N , 64 ° 24' 54.22"  O