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Sitora-i-Mohi-Khosa - Summer Palace

The emir played out his last months of power here, in the palace, north of Bukhara, while the Red Army gained control of the city and its people.He spent his time spying on his harem through secret peepholes.The contents are a mixture; Russian samovars, a German fireplace, Chinese vases...There were about 400 bored women in the harem. In 1920 M N Roy, an Indian communist leader there, decreed a mass divorce and allowed Red Army troops in to take their pick under strict vigilance. After first behaving like scared rabbits, the women were glad to be courted by virile young men - an improvement on sharing the favours of a senile man.

deck overlooking the swimming pool. they say the emir would sit up here and watch the women in his harem swim in the pool. he would throw an apple at whoever he wanted to sleep with that night. presumably he had good aim

When the last Emir fled from the Bolsheviks to Afghanistan, in 1920, he took with him his troop of dancing boys but left his harem behind. A wise man.