ELEVENTH DAY OF PRACTICE AT SITORAI MOKHI-KHOSSA MUSEUM

April 17, 2023

🏛🏛 GOOD AFTERNOON MY DEARS🙋🙋🙋🙋🙋🙋

YOU ARE IN MEXRANGIZ'S BLOG AGAIN

I HOPE YOU ARE IN A GOOD MOOD

TODAY WE VISITED TO THE LEGENDARY SITORAI MOKHI-KHOSSA MUSEUM

In the mid-XIX century Emir of Bukhara Nasrullah Khan decided to build a new country seat for himself. To choose the coolest place not to suffer from summer heat, the architects made recourse to an old method - dressed muttons were put on the potential sites of construction. The place, where the meat got spoiled last, was chosen for the construction of the suburban pearl of Bukhara. Unfortunately, this palace did not survive to the present day.

Several decades later, another emir of Bukhara Mir Sayyd Muhammad Alim Khan initiated the construction of a new palace there. A legend has it that, Emir devoted the palace to his wife Sitora. The construction work which lasted several years resulted in the residence of unprecedented beauty. The Bukhara architects having trained in Russia managed to combine oriental and western styles in their creation. After a while the Emir’s wife died, and her name was given to the palace. It was named Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa, translated from Tajik as “Star, like the Moon”, and this name was preserved to this day. Unfortunately, the Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa also shared the fate of the first palace – it was destroyed.

The extant Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa Palace was built in 1912-1918, by order of the last Emir of Bukhara Mir Sayyd Muhammad Alim Khan. The construction involved the best Bukhara masters of the time, along with two Russian engineers Margulis and Sakovitch.

The palace main building consists of several reception halls and emir’s private rooms. Special attention was given to White Hall, decorated by the famous master usto Shirin Muradov who was subsequently perpetuated in a monument installed in the territory of the summer residence. White Hall was decorated with ganch, laid on walls covered with mirrors. Any of the patterns was never repeated. It is worth noting that mirrors in the Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa Palace are in huge amount. There you can see Venetian mirrors, Japanese mirrors set in fancy frames, and even trellis, which creates a reflection, repeated 40 times.