The Magok-i-Attari Mosque is located in the center of Bukhara’s old town. It is part of the historical religious complex of Lyab-i Hauz. The architecture shows Sogdian (corner pillars) and Zoroastrian (patterns in triangles, circles, sun) influences. The floor of the mosque is about 4.50 meters below the earth’s surface which explains the name of the mosque “maghākī” in Persian which significates “in a pit”. On the site of the mosque was first built a fire temple, with a lunar bazaar. Spices, herbs and figurines of Zoroastrian divinities were sold on the market. When Islam arrived in central Asia, a mosque was built instead of the temple. In 937, the mosque with four pillars was reduced to ashes during the fire of the city and it was in the 12th century that the new mosque was built with the same plan and design until it was destroyed again in the 15th century. Only the remarkable southern portal still remains today. Ornaments are made mainly by the arrangement of cut and carved bricks and by terracotta tiles with floral motifs. The pointed arch of the iwan is resting on two quarter columns set in walls, decorated with wattle. On each side of the iwan, three rectangular frames with decorative patterns are arranged one above the other.
