five o'clock in the morning
It is broad daylight . The desert begins again at the second station , that of Karakoul . Beyond can be seen the windings of an affluent of the Amou-Daria , the Zarafchane , `` the river that rolls with gold , '' the course of which extends up to the valley of the Sogd , in that fertile oasis on which stands the city of Samarkand . At five o'clock in the morning the train stops at the capital of the Khanate of Bokhara , eleven hundred and seven versts from Uzun Ada . The Khanates of Bokhara and Samarkand used to form Sogdiana , a Persian satrapy inhabited by the Tadjiks and afterwards by the Usbegs , who invaded the country at the close of the fifteenth century . But another invasion , much more modern , is to be feared , that of the sands , now that the saksaouls intended to bring the sandhills to a standstill , have almost completely disappeared . Bokhara , the capital of the Khanate , is the Rome of Islam , the Noble City , the City of Temples , the revered centre of the Mahometan religion .