Uzbekistan: Nighttime Photography

Uzbekistan Travel Photos – Monuments at Night

The historic quarters of Bukhara, Samarkand, and Khiva are full of architectural beauty. Many of these monuments are lit in the evenings and sometimes through the night, offering a great opportunity to take night time photos. The detail and the splendor of these buildings really come out in the subtlety of long exposure and dim lighting, doesn’t it.

This building occupies an important place in the history of Persian-Mughal architecture and was used as a blueprint for many buildings in India

Striking similarity for Mughal architecture in India, such as the Humayun's Tomb in Delhi and the Taj Mahal in Agra

Crescent Eid moon rising behind the tomb complex

I definitely recommend sticking around for the evening when the lights come on.

Tilya-Kori Madrasah, the grand mosque

Lights stay on till 8pm and are well done.

Exterior facade of the Sherdor madarsa

Each building in Registan has a large courtyard with little rooms flanking it's external edges

The Sher-Dor madrasa building glowing in the night

The Registan was a public square, where people gathered to hear royal proclamations, and also a place of public executions.

I love taking pictures at night and the opportunities to do nighttime photos are not always present when you travel. Uzbekistan, however, was very safe (there are too many police everywhere), so while they might be puzzled why you are walking around with camera gear at 2am in the night, it’s not very difficult to capture the beauty of these gorgeous monuments.

Gur-e-Amir at night

Main hall of the central mosque is abundantly gilded