Chor-Bakr Necropolis, Bukhara — Complete Guide to the City of the Dead

Ten minutes by car from central Bukhara, and instead of the crowds at Poi-Kalyan you find yourself walking through an entire 16th-century complex with almost no one in it. This is Chor-Bakr — the family necropolis of the Juybar sheikhs, built in 1560.

Main portal with mosaic tile band over the arch and Arabic calligraphy — One of the best-preserved mosaic fragments in the whole complex. Get close — you can see every crack in the tilework

What Chor-Bakr is and why it’s called “four brothers”

Chor-Bakr literally means “four brothers” — after four descendants of the Prophet Muhammad from the Abu Bakr lineage, buried at this site. The most important of them, Abu Bakr Saad, settled in the village of Sumitan near Bukhara back in the 10th century and died here in 970. Pilgrims started coming to his grave, and that’s how the place began — long before any of today’s buildings stood here.

The architectural complex you see today was built in 1560–1563 by Khan Abdullah Khan II — as a gift to his mother. A mosque, a madrasah and a khanaqah were raised on the pilgrimage site, surrounded by a garden of cypresses, plane trees, willows and roses. After Sheikh Khoja Juybari died in 1563, Chor-Bakr became the family burial ground of the Juybar sheikhs — Sufi masters of the Naqshbandi order who effectively governed Bukhara during Abdullah Khan’s rule.

The Juybar sheikhs owned entire towns and quarters, controlled caravan trade and served as spiritual mentors to the khans. In terms of influence, they’re often compared to what the Jesuits were in 17th-century Europe — a religious order with real political and economic power.

Main portal of the Chor-Bakr khanaqah — arched iwan with carved lattice window — Main portal of the khanaqah. The arch is about 13 metres tall

The film-set decorations at the entrance

Right after the central entrance, before you reach the actual mosque and khanaqah, you’ll see some odd structures that you might mistake for part of the complex. A brick wall with round towers and crenellations, a wooden gate, a couple of traditional ox-carts under canvas roofs, baskets, clay storage jars. None of this is from the 16th century. They’re film-set decorations — left over from a historical movie shoot.

Chor-Bakr has long been a favourite location for Central Asian filmmakers: several historical dramas about the Bukhara Khanate and the Silk Road have been shot here. Some of the sets (designed to look like the gates of a caravanserai and a merchant convoy) were never dismantled — they now stand as a kind of open-air prop museum. They’re conveniently set apart from the main complex: tourists photograph them and move on, while the necropolis itself stays almost empty.

Fortress-style gate decoration with two round towers and a wooden door

Old ox-carts with canvas covers — props left over from filming

Decorations right after the main entrance. The brickwork looks “old”, but it’s only a couple of decades old, not 16th century. Locals say several films have been shot here — I couldn’t pin down the exact title, ask the caretaker on site

Peacock walking past another decorative portal with stained glass — The peacocks here are real and totally unbothered by people. This one was strolling around a decorative portal and clearly knew how photogenic he was

Carved wooden column with capital under a canopy — also a film-set prop — This carved column is also a film prop, not a 16th-century original. It stands in the same area, near the gate and the ox-carts

The architectural ensemble: khanaqah, mosque, madrasah

The main buildings of Chor-Bakr line up along a single axis and form a tight ensemble. In the centre stands the large khanaqah (a Sufi lodge) with a portal you can see from far away. To the right — the Friday mosque with white painted interiors. To the left — the madrasah. Between them is a small square and the minaret that half the visitors come here to see.

The minaret — a mini-Kalyan

This round brick minaret is a scaled-down copy of the famous Kalyan Minaret in Bukhara itself. It’s about 18 metres tall, with a spiral staircase inside (closed to visitors). From the right angle, the minaret, the madrasah and the khanaqah dome line up into a classic Bukhara photo — but without the crowds at Poi-Kalyan.

Chor-Bakr minaret on the backdrop of khanaqah and madrasah

Chor-Bakr minaret rising above the ensemble of madrasah and mausoleums — The minaret is the highest point in the complex. The best light is about an hour before sunset, when the brick turns honey-coloured

Inside the khanaqah and the mosque

The khanaqah preserves a huge octagonal hall with a honeycombed muqarnas dome. The plaster has come off in places, the walls are blotchy — but it’s exactly this rough state that makes the hall feel alive, not museum-perfect. The mosque is the opposite: fully restored, with white walls, fine ornamental painting in burgundy and grey, a huge gilt chandelier. The mosque is active — people come to pray here on Fridays.

Octagonal hall of the khanaqah from inside: muqarnas dome and arched niches — Inside the khanaqah. Bird nests are visible on the ceiling — and somehow that makes the architecture look even more lived-in

Hall of the Chor-Bakr mosque with gilt chandelier and painted walls — Inside the mosque. You can enter, but take off your shoes — and women should cover their heads

City of the dead: the necropolis of the Juybar sheikhs

Beyond the main ensemble, the heart of Chor-Bakr is the necropolis itself. It’s a maze of streets and courtyards, with khazira — walled family burial enclosures with no roof — scattered throughout. Inside the khaziras, stone sarcophagi sit either in rows or one by one. The paths are paved with herringbone brick and twist between buildings so unpredictably that you’ll need a map to keep your bearings.

This is the famous “city of the dead” structure that earned Chor-Bakr its place on the UNESCO tentative list: the necropolis literally mirrors the layout of a residential neighbourhood in Bukhara — except instead of houses there are khaziras, and instead of residents there are the Juybar sheikhs and their descendants.

Streets of the Chor-Bakr necropolis: narrow passages between khaziras with arched portals — The streets of the necropolis. You can walk for half an hour and only run into the caretaker with his broom

Inside a khazira — stone sarcophagi of the Juybar sheikhs in the open courtyard

Old gravestones and sarcophagi inside one of the khaziras

Inside a typical khazira. The gravestones are called “sagana”: stepped blocks of marble and dressed stone, with no roof above them

Architectural details

Chor-Bakr rewards slow walking and looking up. Every khazira portal is its own architectural puzzle: in some, the muqarnas are tightly packed into a strict honeycomb; in others, a mosaic band with Kufic script runs along the edge; in others again, it’s just a plain brick iwan with no decoration but perfect proportions. Much of the original tilework is lost and hasn’t been restored — and that, perhaps, is the most valuable part: what you’re looking at isn’t a museum reconstruction, it’s living 16th-century architecture wearing four centuries of patina.

Dakhma with a portal and an internal muqarnas dome made of brick — One of the most beautiful portals in the complex. The muqarnas here are unadorned, just pure geometry

Close-up of the muqarnas vault above the entry iwan — The same vault up close. These “stalactites” aren’t just decoration — they redistribute the dome’s load down to the walls

Khazira portal with fragments of mosaic tilework and arched niches around it

Khazira with a stepped composition and a painted portal

The surviving fragments of tilework give you an idea of how the portals once looked. On most of them, only traces of mosaic remain

Pointed-arch portal with a double arch and carved brickwork — Pointed arches are a hallmark of Central Asian architecture from this period. On this portal you can clearly see how the bricks were laid in layers to create depth

Long khazira wall with panjara lattice windows and a corner iwan — Lattice windows are called “panjara”. They keep the inside dim and breezy even in the heat — a simple, working trick against the Uzbek sun

Brick vaulted gravestones (sagana) in a small courtyard — Sagana with brick vaults — one of the oldest gravestone forms in the complex

Gravestones and old doors

The gravestones deserve their own paragraph. There are hundreds of them in Chor-Bakr — from plain stone slabs to tall black steles covered in carving and calligraphy. The oldest ones have been polished by time to a mirror shine. Some portals still have original wooden doors from the 17th–18th centuries: forged iron rings, hand carving, dried-out boards.

Tall black carved stele with Arabic calligraphy inside a khazira — These black steles are called “kayrak”. Names, dates and sometimes verses were carved into them

Old wooden door with carved panel and a forged iron ring — An original carved door. The pattern is floral, with no living creatures depicted — classic Islamic carving

Simple khazira with niches and sarcophagi against an old brick wall — A simple khazira without a portal — most of them look like this. The set-up is minimal, and that makes it hit harder

Half-ruined khazira with an arch and a sarcophagus in the courtyard — Not everything in Chor-Bakr is restored — and that’s a good thing. There’s more truth in these ruins than in any over-polished museum

Two khaziras with tympanums and old sarcophagi between them — Two khaziras facing each other — a typical Chor-Bakr composition. A “street” usually runs between them

Simple arched khazira portal with an open door in a quiet courtyard — The portal leads into a tiny inner courtyard. The whole necropolis is built from this kind of geometry

Views of Bukhara and the garden

From a few elevated khaziras you get a view over the old city — a turquoise dome of one of Bukhara’s mosques rises above the rooftops. It’s a useful reminder that Chor-Bakr is a suburb, not the middle of nowhere. Part of the territory is a garden: plane trees, mulberries, elms — in autumn the leaves turn gold. Right by the outer wall there’s a duck pond — a good place to sit for ten minutes before you leave.

View through the wall of a khazira to a turquoise dome of a Bukhara madrasah — The turquoise dome in the distance is old Bukhara. This shot only works from this exact spot

Khaziras in the foreground and a panorama of the city with dome and minaret — The city is literally visible just over the gravestone walls. Sunrise shots from here are supposedly even better — but I came in the evening

Pond with ducks in the Chor-Bakr garden, willow branches hanging over — The pond by the outer wall. A nice place to rest if you’ve spent more than an hour walking around the complex

Path between two brick walls with a single tree and an arch at the end — The path to the eastern gate. There’s almost never anyone here

Open courtyard of Chor-Bakr with a sprawling tree and the arched mosque facade — The main courtyard. In the morning the sun is almost vertical here — better come closer to sunset

Vaulted gravestones among tree trunks and branches in the necropolis garden — Part of the necropolis has been overtaken by trees. The trunks have bent around them, and the sarcophagi remain

Sunset light and autumn details

I came in October, and Chor-Bakr caught me in autumn: yellow leaves on the plane trees, warm honey-coloured brick, low sunlight. It’s not the most famous place in Bukhara, but at this time of year it’s one of the most photogenic. Vertical tree trunks against portals, foliage close-ups, a cat on a wall — the shots assemble themselves.

Yellow autumn leaves on an elm branch against the sky

Golden leaves close-up — the Chor-Bakr garden in October

October at Chor-Bakr is its own genre of photography. Yellow on ochre — my must-have shot

Mausoleum dome and minaret seen through autumn branches — The mausoleum dome through the branches. Shooting from below is my favourite angle here

Madrasah dome and arched facade through a sprawling tree — The same angle from another spot. The trees grow so well here it’s like they were planted to frame the shots

Facade of the Chor-Bakr khanaqah with a double row of arched niches and a dome — The khanaqah facade. The double row of arches is a technique that Central Asian architecture would repeat for centuries

Ginger cat walking along the top of a brick wall amid yellow leaves — Local cats. This one did one lap along the wall and went off about his business — wouldn’t let me get a second shot

Sunset light on a Chor-Bakr courtyard with the caretaker by a portal — The last light of the day. By this point only the caretaker is left on the grounds — he’s also the one who locks the gates at night

Practical Information

Chor-Bakr — what you need to know

Address: Sumitan village, 5 km west of central Bukhara, Uzbekistan
GPS: 39.7549, 64.3556
Hours: 09:00–19:00 (summer), 09:00–17:00 (winter), open daily
Entrance: 25,000 UZS (~2 USD / ~1.85 EUR) for foreigners, cheaper for Uzbek citizens
Time needed: minimum 1.5 hours, ideally 2–3
Toilets: yes, on site, basic
Food: nothing on site, nearest cafés are in central Bukhara
Google Maps: Chor-Bakr Necropolis

How to get there

Taxi from central Bukhara: 30,000–50,000 UZS (~2.5–4 USD / ~2.3–3.7 EUR) one way, 10–15 minutes. The most convenient option
Yandex Go / Uklon apps: both work in Bukhara, often the same price or cheaper than a hailed taxi
Marshrutka (shared minibus): from the Registan area towards Sumitan village, about 5,000 UZS (~0.4 USD). It stops on the main road, then it’s a 5-minute walk to the entrance
Bicycle: bike rentals are available in central Bukhara, the road is flat — but in summer heat, not a great idea
Ask the taxi to wait: it’s hard to catch a ride back from Chor-Bakr. An hour of waiting costs about 50,000 UZS (~4 USD / ~3.7 EUR)

Getting to Bukhara from abroad

There are no direct flights from Western Europe to Bukhara — most travellers fly to Tashkent (regular flights from London, Frankfurt, Paris with Uzbekistan Airways, Turkish Airlines via Istanbul, or Lufthansa) and then take a domestic flight, fast train (Afrosiyob, ~3.5 hours from Tashkent) or overnight sleeper to Bukhara. The fast train is the most popular option — comfortable, scenic and easy to book online via the Uzbekistan Railways site. From Samarkand, the train to Bukhara takes about 1.5 hours.

When to come

The best time is 1.5–2 hours before sunset. The light is golden, the shadows are deep, and there are almost no visitors (most tour groups come in the morning). Sunrise also works well, especially if you want crowd-free shots — the turquoise dome of old Bukhara on the horizon glows in the early light. Midday is the worst time: harsh shadows and heat.

What to combine it with

Chor-Bakr pairs well with the Bahauddin Naqshband mausoleum (12 km east of central Bukhara) — the second main Sufi pilgrimage site in the region and the spiritual “home” of the same Naqshbandi order. You can build a full day out of it: morning at Bahauddin, lunch in Bukhara, evening at Chor-Bakr.

Visa

Citizens of the EU, UK, Switzerland, Japan, US, Canada, Australia and most other developed countries can enter Uzbekistan visa-free for 30 days as of 2025. A passport valid for at least six months is enough — no e-visa needed for short tourism trips.

Photography tip: bring a wide lens for the interiors (24–35 mm) and a short telephoto (50–85 mm) for the carving details and portals seen in perspective along the streets. No tripod needed. Don’t fly a drone without official permission — Chor-Bakr is still a religious site and locals don’t take kindly to it.

What to keep in mind

Chor-Bakr is an active religious site. Pilgrims still come on Fridays to pray at specific gravestones. It’s not a turnstile museum, it’s a living complex — so you should:

dress modestly: long trousers or a skirt, shoulders covered (a headscarf for women is recommended on site, and required inside the mosque)
take off your shoes when entering the mosque or khanaqah
don’t climb on the gravestones or sit on the khazira walls
don’t photograph people who are praying without asking
keep your voice down — even when the place is empty

If you want more depth, ask the caretaker at the entrance: for a small fee (negotiate on the spot, usually 50,000–100,000 UZS) he can give a quick tour in Russian or Uzbek. You won’t find an English-speaking guide here — better to hire a guide in Bukhara and arrange to include Chor-Bakr in your itinerary.

FAQ

How do I get to Chor-Bakr from Bukhara

The easiest option is a taxi from the city centre — 10–15 minutes and around 30,000–50,000 UZS (~2.5–4 USD) one way. The marshrutka from the Registan area is cheaper but only takes you to the main road. Ask your taxi to wait, because catching a ride back from Chor-Bakr is hard.

When is the best time to visit Chor-Bakr

1.5–2 hours before sunset is ideal — warm light and almost no other visitors. Sunrise also works well if you want empty frames. Avoid midday, especially in summer: harsh shadows and serious heat.

How much time do I need at Chor-Bakr

At least 1.5 hours to walk through the necropolis and step inside the mosque and khanaqah. If you’re into architecture or photography, plan for 2.5–3 hours. The complex is compact, but the maze of khaziras inside is bigger than it first looks.

Is Chor-Bakr worth visiting if I’ve already seen central Bukhara

Yes — it’s a completely different Bukhara: quiet, crowd-free, with 16th-century architecture in nearly original condition. If you have two or more days in Bukhara, Chor-Bakr is a definite yes. For a one-day trip, only if you like quieter, less touristy places.

How much does it cost to enter Chor-Bakr

For foreigners: 25,000 UZS (about 2 USD). For Uzbek citizens it’s noticeably cheaper. Add the optional caretaker-guide fee (50,000–100,000 UZS) and a parking taxi (around 50,000 UZS per hour of waiting) if needed.

Can I visit Chor-Bakr without a guide

Absolutely. Signage is minimal but you can’t really get lost: the main ensemble lines up with the entrance, and the necropolis is a maze you’re meant to wander. A guide only helps if you want the full story of the Juybar sheikhs and the Naqshbandi order — without it, it’s still a beautifully quiet ruin to walk through.

What are those decorations right at the entrance

They’re props left over from a historical film shoot — fortress-style gates with towers and old ox-carts under canvas. Chor-Bakr is sometimes used as a film location for Central Asian historical dramas, and not all of the sets get dismantled. They’re set apart from the main complex, so you can easily skip them if you only care about the genuine 16th-century buildings.

Do EU/UK/US citizens need a visa for Uzbekistan

No — citizens of most Western countries (EU, UK, US, Canada, Australia, Japan) can enter Uzbekistan visa-free for up to 30 days as of 2025. You just need a passport with six months of validity. No e-visa, no airport queues for stamps.

Chor-Bakr is one of those places you want to come back to when you’re tired of central Bukhara. Quiet, almost no people, and you actually get to see 16th-century architecture without the back of someone else’s head in the frame.