BUKHARA, UZBEKISTAN

Bukhara, Uzbekistan is a city smack dab in the middle of a historical crossroads.  Once one of the greatest centers of Islamic learning, Bukhara was completely leveled by Genghis Khan in 1127, with the sole exception being the Kalyan Minaret, one of the only remaining buildings in Central Asia to predate his conquests.  Po-i-Kalyan, the mosque and madrasa complex that surrounds the minaret was completed almost 400 years later, and the architecture still harken back to that time, their turquoise tiles beautifully mirroring the bright blue of the clear Uzbek summer sky.  As perhaps the most widely impressive of all the historical Silk Road cities, Bukhara is a stunning reminder of the beauty, power, and history of what was at one point the crossroads of the trade for the known world.