Varakhsha

History

Varakhsha was a key military outpost on the oasis's western frontier, a political and cultural centre, and a trading town on the road from Bukhara to Khorezm; the site covers 100 ha. The 10th-century historian Narshakhi described it as a settlement as large as Bukhara and older; he relates that Ismail Samani offered the townspeople 20,000 dirhams and building materials to turn the palace into a Friday mosque, but they refused.

Life at Varakhsha died out in the 11th century as water ran short in the oasis irrigation system. Excavations were begun in the 1930s by the archaeologist V. A. Shishkin.

The palace and its murals

The palace stood by the southern wall, west of the citadel; it was built in the 5th century AD and survived until the late 8th or early 9th century. Its core was a row of three grand halls — the Eastern, Red and Western. The walls showed a royal audience with the king enthroned, while the Red Hall was painted with hunts of predators and fantastic beasts: riders on elephants fighting tigers and monsters.

Some of the murals and stucco are displayed in the Varakhsha history museum in Bukhara's Nadir Divan-Begi Khanqah. On site you'll see high mounds and the remains of mud-brick walls.