Burana Tower

On the face of it, Burana Tower does not look an exceptional attraction. Dating from the tenth century, and possibly the oldest minaret in Central Asia, it was reconstructed in the 1970s and is little over half the height of the original. It is not easy to find, and the views from the top, while good, do not of themselves justify the trouble you will have in getting there. Although this is one of the very few ancient monuments in the region, the interest lies not so much in what is there, but in what is there no longer.

The Tower is virtually the sole remnant of a former flourishing market town whose prosperity rose and fell with that of the Silk Road, and which had been virtually abandoned by the fifteenth century. The Tower's continued presence, even though reconstructed, therefore speaks of a departed people: where there are now green fields and grazing sheep there were then busy streets, merchants' houses, mosques and all the appurtenances of urban life. We are so used to the forward march of civilisation that to encounter an instance of its going into reverse, as it were, is a salutary and slightly melancholy experience.

Therefore it would be unwise to visit expecting some monument of breathtaking beauty or size or antiquity. Rather the Tower works in the mind, to serve as a metaphor for the inevitable decay of human structures and institutions, and as such the memory will remain with you long after those of other more famous monuments have merged into an indistinct blur.