Lab-i-Hauz is Bukhara's most beloved public square — a rectangular reflecting pool fringed by mulberry trees and surrounded by teahouses, madrasahs, and a bronze statue of Nasreddin Hodja sitting backward on a donkey. The hauz (pool) was built in 1620, and the three historic structures enclosing it — the Kukeldash Madrasah, the Nadir Divanbegi Khanaqah, and the Nadir Divanbegi Madrasah — were completed around the same time. Together they form one of the most satisfying architectural ensembles in Central Asia.
In the evening, the pool lights up with reflections from the surrounding monuments and the teahouse lanterns. Locals and travellers mix freely at the outdoor tables, ordering green tea, kebabs, and cold beer. Children still sometimes leap from the mulberry branches into the water in summer. It is a genuinely pleasant place to slow down, and the most human corner of an old city that can sometimes feel like an open-air museum.