Location:
Po-i Kalan

Bukhara

Uzbekistan

coordinates: 39.7755203,64.4154053
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Building names(s): Kalyan minaret
Architect/Designer: Bako
architect website:
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Completion date: 1127

function(s): historic site

credentials/awards: UNESCO World Heritage Site

structure: It is made in the form of a circular-pillar baked brick tower, narrowing upwards. It is 45.6 metres (149.61 ft) high (48 metres including the point), of 9 metres (29.53 ft) diameter at the bottom and 6 metres (19.69 ft) overhead.

The body of the minaret is topped by a rotunda with 16 arched fenestrations, from which the muedzins summoned the Muslims in the city to prayer. There is a brick spiral staircase that twists up inside around the pillar to the rotunda. Once the minaret was believed to have had another round section above the rotunda, but now only the cone-shaped top remains. The tower base has narrow ornamental strings belted across it made of bricks which are placed in both straight or diagonal fashion. The frieze is covered with a blue glaze with inscriptions.