Magok-i Attari Mosque, which is situated in the heart of old city of Bukhara, is one of the oldest architectural monuments of the city. Its name as well as its nature changed several times in the past. Today it is – a mosque Magok-i Attari. Its name is translated as “mosque in the pit,” or literally as “deep mosque“.
Magok-i Attari Mosque got this name several centuries ago: already that time the cultural layers had hidden under the ground the large part of the building and the congregation, entering it, went down in the basement. It is believed that before the construction of the first synagogue in Bukhara, Jews prayed here in the same room with the Muslims.
There was a bazaar before the Arab conquest, where merchants sol idols, medicines and herbs where is now located Magoki-Attari, there was also a pagan temple of the moon. Scientists and archaeologists have also found that on the ground of the mosque, once was located a Buddhist monastery, and later Zoroastrian temple. The temple was later converted into a Muslim mosque.
Abdul – Aziz Khan I (1533-1550) financed the overhaul of the mosque , which was completed in 1549. The new eastern ( upper) portal was constructed as the ancient southern portal remained under the several meters of beneath the earth. Now the southern facade is completely excavated and restored.
One of the most interesting monuments of Bukhara-Magoki Attori Mosque, in the old town center, next to the trade dome Taq-i Sarrafon, houses the Museum of Carpets in Bukhara. The museum of carpets was opened in 1991. Here are wonderful examples of Uzbek, Turkmen, Iranian, Kazakh, Armenian rugs and carpets, valise, and decorations for tents of 18-20th centuries. Wool and silk products are decorated with geometric, floral, cosmogonic and zoomorphic motifs.
