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Bolo Hauz Mosque
Bolo Hauz Complex. Uzbekistan, Bukhara
Its construction began in the 17th сentury at the instigation of the Bukhara emir Shahmurad. He wanted to show his people he was not different from an ordinary man and decided to build a public mosque he himself was going to visit for Friday prayers.
Bolo Hauz means ‘children’s pond’. Water has always been short in Central Asia, so they used to build ponds serving as drinking water source for the population. Water carriers would take water from the ponds and delivered it in special leather containers to residential quarters and bazaars where they sold it. Bolo Hauz was one of these ponds. It had been there until the Soviet authorities decided to dry it in the early 20th century so as to prevent epidemics: the stagnant water in the pond was also a source of infection, but the locals still habitually used it.
The mosque looks elegant and splendid, since it was built for the ruler’s visits. It features 20 pillars that hold its ceiling. The pillars are wooden and are all over covered with artful carvings. The local people also call the structure ‘the forty-pillar mosque’. It is not a calculation mistake; the 20 pillars are reflected in the pond, so there are 40 of them.
The mosque is over three centuries old but it still functions. Believers come to pray in it every day.
Bolo Hauz Mosque
Bolo Hauz Complex. Uzbekistan, Bukhara
Its construction began in the 17th сentury at the instigation of the Bukhara emir Shahmurad. He wanted to show his people he was not different from an ordinary man and decided to build a public mosque he himself was going to visit for Friday prayers.
Bolo Hauz means ‘children’s pond’. Water has always been short in Central Asia, so they used to build ponds serving as drinking water source for the population. Water carriers would take water from the ponds and delivered it in special leather containers to residential quarters and bazaars where they sold it. Bolo Hauz was one of these ponds. It had been there until the Soviet authorities decided to dry it in the early 20th century so as to prevent epidemics: the stagnant water in the pond was also a source of infection, but the locals still habitually used it.
The mosque looks elegant and splendid, since it was built for the ruler’s visits. It features 20 pillars that hold its ceiling. The pillars are wooden and are all over covered with artful carvings. The local people also call the structure ‘the forty-pillar mosque’. It is not a calculation mistake; the 20 pillars are reflected in the pond, so there are 40 of them.
The mosque is over three centuries old but it still functions. Believers come to pray in it every day.