3-006-960 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Duan-Beggi Medrese (in Labikhauz), Bukhara, between 1905 and 1915. Possibly a view of the Nadir Devanbegi Madrasah. Note stork's nest. (A khanqah - also spelled khangah, khankah, khaneqa, khanegah or khaneqah; also known as a ribat - is a building designed specifically for gatherings of a Sufi brotherhood or tariqa and is a place for spiritual practice and religious education). Russian chemist and photographer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky (1863-1944) was a pioneer in colour photography which he used to document early 20th-century Russia and her empire, including the vanishing way of life of tribal peoples along the Silk Route in Central Asia. In a railway-carriage darkroom provided by Czar Nicholas II, Prokudin-Gorsky used the three-colour photography process to record traditional costumes and occupations, churches and mosques - many now Unesco World Heritage sites - as well as modernisation in agriculture, industry and transport.