The Courtyard of Maedjid-i Kalyan, a photo from Bukhara, West

Photographer's Note

Bukhara in Uzbekistan is an ancient oasis city along the fabled Silk Route and it is said that the sun shines up from the city for it is so noble. For centuries it was a centre of trade and Islam, earning the title Bukhoro-i-Sharif, or "Noble Bukhara" among Muslims (one of the seven holy cities of Islam). The city itself boasts impressive architecture and history. It is one of the few places in Central Asia where one can feel the heartbeat of ancient Central Asia. Most of the city remains intact and most of the 250,000 inhabitants are members of families who have lived there for generations upon generations.

Central Asia’s holiest city, Bukhara, which is more than 2,000 years old, has buildings spanning a thousand years of history, and a thoroughly lived-in old centre that probably hasn’t changed much in two centuries. It is one of the best places in Central Asia for a glimpse of pre-Russian Turkestan.

Most of the centre is an architectural preserve, full of madressas, a massive royal fortress and the remnants of a once-vast market complex.

Po-i-Kalyan or Poi Kalyan (Uzbek: Poi Kalon) which means "The Foot of the Great", is an Islamic religious complex located around the Kalyan minaret in Bukhara. Kalon means great and this mosque, locally known as Maedjid-i kalyan was completed circa 1514. It was known also as Jamia (Friday) because all male inhabitants of the city were expected to attend the Friday prayer in this mosque. When Genghis Khan conquered Bukhara and went inside the mosque he thought he was entering the (local) royal palace. When he learnt it was a religious building, he first turned it into a stable and then set fire to it. The current mosque was built in 1514: the portal leading to its courtyard had the objective of showing the wealth and power of the Shaybanid dynasty. In order to allow all the male adults to attend the Friday prayer the courtyard was very large.

In the background is the Kalon Minaret which was built by the Karakhanid ruler Arslan Khan in 1127. When it was built, the Minaret (whose name means "great" in Tajik) was probably the tallest building in Central Asia. It stands 47m tall and is supported by 10km-deep foundations padded with reeds for earthquake-proofing. In 850 years, it has never needed any structural repairs.

timecapturer, pierrefonds, holmertz, cornejo, Romano46, ChrisJ, jjcordier, danos, kordinator, jhm, papagolf21, kasianowak, Didi, abmdsudi, macjake, Graal, bukitgolfb301, adores, josepmarin, PaulVDV heeft deze opmerking als nuttig gemarkeerd

Critiques | Translate

timecapturer (49288) 2015-01-12 2:57

Hello Angshuman
do like this! It is so atmospheric and beautifully executed. The shadow play and your control of the light here are exemplary and the effect entrancing and compelling.

Glorious!

Have a good week- B.

pierrefonds (115408) 2015-01-12 4:14

Hi Angshuman,

The presence of the persons has an effect pf scale. The point of view is showing the details of the Kaslon Mosque. The good luminosity is enhancing the colors. Have a nice day.

Pierre

Sergiom (117241) 2015-01-12 5:47

Bonjour Angshuman,

J'aime beaucoup la construction de cette image. Elle est très symétrique dans sa forme et joue le jeu entre l'ombre et la lumière de l'endroit. J'aime beaucoup la lumière sur la tour de droite.

Amicalement

Serge

John_F_Kennedy (43797) 2015-01-12 8:09

Hello Angshuman,
A wonderful shot of a wonderful mosque. Colours and the light background looks amazing.
best wishes,
Achim

lousat (139906) 2015-01-12 8:31

Hi Angshu,absolutely beautiful the choice of point of view to show us a lot of interesting things and magnificent architechtures from this courtyard.Great exposure of the different light levels and fine details too,very very well done...as usual! Have a nice evening and thanks,Luciano

holmertz (103520) 2015-01-12 9:53

Hello Angshuman,
This is an extremely attractive complex, and especially the minaret is very impressive. We should all be grateful that this mosque was not pulled down during Soviet times. Maybe the rulers in Moscow didn't dare to touch the mosques and were satisfied with destroying churches. This is a technically superb photo (they always are). In case this entire courtyard is a "no shoes" area you found a good place for the photo where you wouldn't burn the soles of your feet.
Kind regards,
Gert

cornejo (61504) 2015-01-12 9:55

Hello Angshuman very good picture of this beautiful courtyard of this great mosque, nicely composed and captured in this interesting image with good sharpness, depth, good light, color and quality. Very good and interesting job well done, congratulations my friend. Thanks for sharing this beautiful work.

Good night and happy start to the week.
Warm greetings from southern Spain.
Angel.

Romano46 (18472) 2015-01-12 11:09

Ciao Angshuman
un luogo straordinario ma anche una foto altrettanto straordinaria.
Composizione, contrasto, luce e colori di grandissima qualità.
Meravigliosa.
Complimenti.
Ciao e buona serata
Romano

siudzi (34141) 2015-01-12 11:33

Hello Angshuman,
This place looks so amazing due to the unique architecture and the colors of the buildings around. Fantastic symmetrical composition fits to your presentation very well and shows the beauty of the subject. Well done!
Best,
Gosia

npecanhuk (79329) 2015-01-12 16:42

Hello Angshuman!
Wonderful architectural details!
Very beautiful and attractive picture!
Sharpness, exposure, colors, horizontal format, chosen pov and composition are all excellent!
TFS - congrats,
Cheers,
Neyvan

federico (6109) 2015-01-12 17:02

hello Angshuman, very nice photo, great colors and light, perfect composition, well balanced lights and shadows, a kind of professional work
Regards
Fred

ChrisJ (172372) 2015-01-12 20:53

Hello Angshuman

Good symmetry in the composition with excellent sharpness and punchy light contrasts. Good shadow detail in the fg and the woman at left and boys at right add scale. The minaret tower is nicely positioned over the 1/3 axis. Hope you took a shot of the whole green roofed dome at left. Tfs!

jjcordier (79299) 2015-01-12 23:00

Angshuman
Bel ensemble de bâtiments religieux, très bien cadrés. Une belle lumière et un joli ciel.
Amicalement
JJ

danos (110407) 2015-01-12 23:23

Hello Angshu,
nice the symmetrical view of the courtyard of Maedjid-i Kalyan,with the impressive buildings to dominating the scenery.I like the view of the place with the woman on the left to adds scale in the frame.

Regards,Danos

kordinator (8738) 2015-01-13 0:23

Dear Angshuman
A wonderful shot of a beautiful Mosque.
Colors and the light background looks amazing.
he point of view is showing vonderful details.
Great photo job.
Kind regards
Saša

jhm (211738) 2015-01-13 0:24

Hello Angshuman,

Your pictures are always perfect catered, also always a very nice subject with an excellent note too.
You play wonderful with light and shadows.
Completely sharp and clear.
A nice composition, lovely presentation too.
Very well done, TFS,

Best regards,
John

papagolf21 (152607) 2015-01-13 1:06

Bonjour, cher Angshu,
Je voyage avec grand plaisir à travers vos compositions bénéficiant à chaque fois d'un intérêt manifeste.
Très belle mise en image;
Amitiés.
Philippe

pajaran (116915) 2015-01-13 1:52

Dobar dan, popodne.
Lep pogled, interesantan i dobar tekst o starom gradu, dzamiji i arhitekturi sa istorijom i opisom ...
Dobar snimak, kontrast i perspektiva, lepo pokazana arhitektura i detalji na fasadi.
Lepa arhitektura.
Lepo popodne i sve najbolje.
Paja.

Good afternoon, this afternoon.
Nice view, interesting and good article about the old city, a mosque and architecture with a history and description ...
Good shot, contrast and perspective, beautiful architecture and the details shown on the facade.
Beautiful architecture.
A nice afternoon and all the best.
Paja.

kasianowak (17676) 2015-01-13 3:58

Hi Angshu
I know this courtyard is very difficult to photograph because of high contrast levels. You solved the problem so well by using the contrast to your advantage and creating two separate areas within the image.
Best wishes
Kasia

Fis2 (171789) 2015-01-13 4:49

Witaj Angshu!
Curious courtyard, very interesting architecture.
Good frame and colors.
I like light and shadow.
Well done.
Have a nice afternoon
Krzysztof

Didi (61589) 2015-01-13 10:27

Salam Angshu
Wonderful place very good frame quality and a good lights management
Very nice sharp picture
Kind regards

abmdsudi (95869) 2015-01-13 20:21

Namaste Angshu
Superb shot of a magnificent piece of architecture and a great choice of perspective with so much of this iconic landmark has been caught in the frame. Love play of light and shadow that you have retained a lot of detail even in shaded areas, and the people give a good idea of the size of the place. Good sky for the background as well. Substantially excellent work. Congrats, tfs
Best regards

macjake (98544) 2015-01-13 22:12

Hi Angshu
I have to be honest, i don't really know much about this country, I guess I should start learning more about it shouldn't I!

What's it like traveling here? safe? easy? good transportation? friendly people?

you've got yourself a fine photo, hard to get because of the stark contrasts in light and shadow, but with a little help from photoshop it has turned out just fine.

very elegant architecture, looks quite pristine and untouched, despite being historic.

excellent post
cheers
craig

Nicou (193814) 2015-01-14 1:06

Hlelo

Superbe image avec ce tombeau dans l'ombre quelle architecture et image la dame à droite ce merveilleux minaret à gauche quelle vue et captage superbe image.
Bravo et amitié
Nicou

mkamionka (75009) 2015-01-14 2:23

Dear Angshu,
this is so beautiful! It makes me want to jump into plane and go there right away. Although on the other hand it seems so beautiful that almost unreal. Places like this exist probably just in my dreams.
I like very much the composition of course. The tower is so nicely shaped and so well placed in the frame. The sky is spectacular adding so much dynamics here. The lady and the four guys add a nice touch too.
Excellent work!!!
M

shreya2000 (2815) 2015-01-14 4:47

Dear Dada,

Certianly a very fine picture taken by you. The shadow formation around the building is extraordinary. Good architecture building. Nice colours.

Regards,
joginder

Graal (103040) 2015-01-15 9:42

Hello Angshuman,
very nice monumental place in Uzbekistan. I like the architecture. Good symmetric composition. Fine contrast and colors. Well note also.
Have a nice evening.
Aleksander

Waylim (25436) 2015-01-22 11:41

Hi Angshuman,

Beautiful image of the courtyard. Excellent control on the lighting between the shadow and light.

W

adores (46979) 2015-01-22 13:19

Hi Angshuman!
Another great one from that fabulous country! Once again you got a very good composition and colours. You got much detail even in the shadow and I like the presence of the people.
I'll return to my photos of India soon:)!

josepmarin (59385) 2015-01-24 1:54

Namaste, my friend Angshuman,
it's a really wonderful architecture, and you've caught it skilfully in order to offer us its whole beauty, under a splendid contrast between shadows and light.
I like the depth and perspective of the image, the warm colors and the presence of the people, which gives a good vitality in the ensemble.
A great work.
Best wishes,
Josep

PaulVDV (63432) 2015-02-10 12:15

Hello Angshu,
A magnificent square of a thousand and one nights.
Superb architecture well presented in an attractive composition and with a good contrast between the places in the shadow and those in the sunlight.
I like the inclusion of the lady on the foreground, almost like a silhouette.
Best regards, Paul