Kalon Minaret
The Kalon Minaret is one of the defining symbols of Bukhara. Towering over the city at over 48 metres, this 'javelin thrust into the heart of the old town' has dominated the Bukharan skyline for over eight and a half centuries, the initial augur to exhausted caravans that they had, at last, arrived at a truly great city.
Genghis Khan, upon gazing at this structure, quietly ordered the minaret spared the ensuing orgy of destruction.
From the arched openings around the minaret's graceful rotunda, muzzeines once called the faithful to prayer five times a day, sentries kept watch for the enemy when the city was at war, and condemned prisoners were hurled to their deaths on the flagstones below - a practice which earned it the name 'Tower of Death'
