Toqi Telpa Furushon

 Toqi Telpa Furushon

    The Telpak-Furushon dome is translated as a "dome of hats and ornaments". This is an indoor market built in the XVI century, located at the intersection of five streets of Bukhara. Here they sold various headdresses: skullcaps, embroidered with beads, brocade and silk, fur fox hats, beautifully rolled turbans. It is known that the trade in headgear here sold books, and the place was called Kitab-Furushon (Kitab meaning book). Today, you may buy beautiful embroidered headdresses in oriental style.

    Toqi Telpa Furushon, which is located in a place where five ancient roads meet, is situated today at the end of a roundabout across the road from the modern Asia Bukhara Hotel, where taxis and busses full of tourists disgorge their contents directly into the city center.  Obviously today the streets passing through the covered bazaar are pedestrian only, but location was just important then as it is now, and merchants still take advantage of the traffic bottleneck.  

    Located on the main drag between the Lyabi-Hauz and the Kalon Minaret and Mosque, this is primo real-estate for shopping, and prices reflect this.  When it was built at the end of the 16th century, this covered bazaar specialized in selling books and manuscripts. It was known then as Toqi Kitob (Uzbek kitob for “book”), but today’s name refers to the hat makers which replaced the booksellers, so today the market is also known as the cap sellers bazaar. 21st century travelers however are more likely to find carpets, susani, and tourist souvenirs, rather than practical headwear.

    The shopping arcade Toki Telpak-furushon (‘Dome of Headgear Salespersons’) comprised 5 streets fanning extensively. By means of cranked turnings skillful constructors transformed the streets into a regular hexahedral base. The central dome crowning Toki Telpak-furushon has a circle of windows. In the past the shops met the customers with abundance of turbans, fur hats, and skullcaps embroidered with silk and decorated with beads.The western passage of Toki Telpak Furushon leads to the street Mehtar Ambar. The first building on the right is Kuleta, the ancient caravanserai (16th century). A little forward is the Kurpa Mosque. And the Mullo Tursunjon Madrasah is almost at the end of the street.