Xoja Kalon minaret

The Kalon Minaret, known locally as Xoja Kalon, is a twelfth-century freestanding tower in Bukhara, raised in 1127 on the orders of the Qarakhanid ruler Arslan Khan Muhammad to replace an earlier minaret that had collapsed on the same spot. Built of fired brick, it rises roughly 46 meters, tapering from a base about 9 meters wide to a slender rotunda near 6 meters across at the top, where a cylindrical lantern once carried the muezzin's call and, for centuries, served travelers as a nighttime beacon on the desert approaches to the city. Bands of ornamental brickwork and glazed tilework wrap the shaft in geometric and inscriptive patterns typical of the era. An internal spiral stairway leads up to a viewing gallery. The minaret anchors the Poi-Kalon ensemble beside the Kalon Mosque and the Mir-i Arab Madrasah, and despite later turbulence it survived largely intact, remaining one of the most recognizable landmarks of historic Bukhara.