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Places in this article: Khiva · Samarkand · Bukhara · Tashkent
Khiva: the Old Town That Is Younger Than It Looks
Seven in the morning, the street inside the west gate of .Did you know? People still live inside Khiva's museum city Itchan Kala packs more than 50 historic monuments and about 250 old houses inside clay walls 8–10 m high and 5–6 m thick, and families still live and work in its lanes. Read more → The sun has just cleared the clay wall, and the ,Did you know? A 14-metre-wide base for a tower that stopped at 29 m Kalta-Minor was begun in 1852 and meant to reach 70–80 m, but work halted in 1855 at about 29 m when its khan died. It is said to be the only minaret covered entirely in glazed tiles. Read more → wide as a barrel and tiled turquoise from top to bottom, still stands in shadow. The street is empty. A man selling fur hats unlocks his stall; a cyclist rides past with flatbreads on the rack. In two or three hours the first groups will arrive and this same street will be hard to walk. Right now you can hear your own steps.
Only people who sleep inside the walls or close to them see Khiva like this, and it is the best time to understand how it differs from Samarkand and Bukhara. Khiva is usually called ancient, and the town is old. But almost everything you see on the main streets of Itchan Kala was built in the 18th, 19th and even early 20th centuries. Khiva did not so much survive the centuries as finish late and then almost stop changing. That is its strength.
We are a tour operator in Tashkent, and this guide explains the old town through that idea. The hour-by-hour plan is in Khiva in 1 or 2 days.
Why Khiva survived in one piece
The Khorezm oasis lies far from Samarkand and Bukhara, beyond the desert. The Khiva khanate lived its own life for a long time and in 1873 became a protectorate of the Russian Empire, one of the last in the region.
Then the town was lucky in an odd way. New life went outside the walls, into Did you know? Legend: Khiva's 6-km outer wall went up in 30 days Legend says Allakuli Khan raised the outer wall of Dishan Kala in 1842, more than 6 km long with ten gates, in just 30 days. The court historian Agahi, however, wrote of about three years of work. Read more → and the modern quarters, while the inner town stayed almost as it was at the start of the 20th century. In 1990 UNESCO inscribed Itchan Kala as a whole, as one site rather than a set of monuments: it was Uzbekistan's first World Heritage site. Inside are more than 50 historic monuments and about 250 old houses.
The walls: where the modern town ends
The walls are built of sun-dried clay brick, 8 to 10 metres high, and run for about 2.2 km. Four gates face the four points of the compass. Walk in through the west gate, ,Did you know? Khiva’s four gates are the Father, Garden, Strongman and Stone Itchan Kala’s four gates face the points of the compass: Ota-Darvoza, the “Father Gate”, in the west; Bogcha-Darvoza, the “Garden Gate”, in the north; Polvon-Darvoza, the “Strongman’s Gate”, in the east; Tosh-Darvoza, the “Stone Gate”, in the south. Read more → where the ticket office is, and modern Khiva really does end: no avenues, no bus stops.
If you can, climb onto the wall. From up there you see the main thing: the whole old town is a rectangle of about 650 by 400 metres that you can cross on foot in twenty minutes. The minarets and domes stand so close together that it is hard to believe a whole khanate was ruled from here. Our guide to Itchan Kala walks through it gate by gate.
Kalta-Minor: Central Asia's most famous unfinished tower
Muhammad Amin-Khan began this minaret in 1852. It was meant to be very tall; by legend, tall enough to see Bukhara from the top. In 1855 the khan died on campaign, the work stopped, and the minaret stayed at 29 metres.
The detail people miss: what makes the Kalta-Minor Khiva's most recognisable silhouette happened by accident. Its base, 14.2 metres across, was planned for a tower many times taller. Stopped a third of the way up, it became a squat cylinder glazed from the ground to the top, and that unfinished shape is why you cannot mistake it for any other minaret. More in Kalta-Minor and Islam Khoja.
Kunya-Ark: a fortress inside the fortress
The khans' residence stands by the west wall, just inside the gate. It held a throne room, a mint, a harem and a summer mosque faced almost entirely with blue and white tiles. The khan received visitors in an open iwan, and in the cold months a yurt was put up in the courtyard.
The real prize here is the view. Climb the Did you know? Legend: a White Sheikh lived at the top of the Kunya-Ark Legend says a holy man, Ak Sheikh Bobo, the White Sheikh, lived in a cell on the highest point of the hill long before the khans. What is known: the citadel was first built in 1686–1688, and his cell later served as a watchtower and powder store. Read more → watchtower on the old bastion and Itchan Kala spreads out like a model, every dome and minaret in place. It works best near sunset, when the brick turns copper.
The Juma Mosque: a forest older than the building
If you want something truly old in Khiva, go into the .Did you know? Khiva's Juma Mosque stands on 212 wooden columns Recorded as early as the 10th century and rebuilt in 1788, the Juma Mosque has no portal and no domes: its flat roof rests on 212 carved columns in 17 rows, and some of them are older than the building itself. Read more → The present building dates from the end of the 18th century, but its flat roof rests on 212 carved wooden columns, and some of them are much older than the mosque itself: they were brought in from earlier buildings. The carving differs from column to column, and if you look closely you can see they belong to different ages.
In the dim, low hall there is not a single bright tile. After the turquoise facades outside, it is unexpected and very calm.
Islam Khoja: the youngest and the tallest
The tallest structure in Itchan Kala came last. The Did you know? Khiva's tallest minaret is barely a century old The Islam Khoja Minaret was begun in 1908, near the very end of the khans' era. At 56.6 m it is one of the tallest in Central Asia; a spiral stair of 175 steps leads up to its windowed top. Read more → was finished in 1910 and rises to 56.6 metres. It was built for the vizier Islam Khoja, a moderniser who paid from his own funds for a hospital, a post office and secular schools.
The minaret is banded in turquoise, blue and terracotta brick and does not compete with neighbours centuries older. You can climb it by a steep, narrow staircase. It is a workout, but the view justifies it; whether it is open that day is decided at the ticket office.
Outside the walls
Walk out through the north gate into Dishan Kala, where Khiva lives and works, to the Did you know? A merchant sold the khan his garden on one condition The Nurullaboy Palace stands in a garden that belonged to a rich merchant, Nurullabai. He agreed to sell it to the khan only if the palace bore his name, and so it still does. Its tiles and ceramics were ordered from Saint Petersburg. Read more → Palace, whose reception hall was finished in 1912. A day further out, across the Amu Darya, stand the clay fortresses of ancient Khorezm, much older than anything inside the walls: our trip to the Ayaz-Kala fortress includes a guide and tickets, and Khorezm's desert fortresses explains what you will see.
When to go and how to get there
Come in spring (April–May) or autumn (September–October). In summer Khorezm is very hot, and in winter it is cold and windy. Plan one full day inside the walls and one night, so you catch the morning without groups; add a day for the fortresses.
Fly to Urgench, about half an hour by car from Khiva, or take the train: the fast Did you know? The fast train to Khiva bears the name of a 13th-century shah The Jaloliddin Manguberdi, a Hyundai Rotem high-speed train, made its first run on 5 May 2026: 1,220 km from Tashkent to Khiva via Samarkand, Bukhara and Urgench in about 7.5 hours. It is named after Jalal ad-Din, the last Khwarazmshah. Read more → leaves Tashkent at 07:00 every day except Sunday and calls at Samarkand and Bukhara on the way. More in Tashkent to Khiva. With a guide, the day inside the walls is our Khiva private tour, and from Tashkent there is Khiva in 3 days by night train.
In short
- Itchan Kala looks ancient, but most of what you see dates from the 18th to the early 20th century; that is why it survived as one whole town.
- The inner town is about 650 by 400 metres: twenty minutes on foot, but plan a full day and a night inside or near the walls.
- Do not miss the Kalta-Minor (29 m, unfinished), the view from Did you know? In the khan’s courtyard a round platform waited for a yurt The Kunya-Ark, the khans’ citadel, had its own mint, arsenal and harem. In the courtyard of its reception hall of 1804–1806 stands a round platform: a yurt was set up on it, and there the khan received envoys of the steppe nomads. Read more → at sunset, the 212 columns of the Juma Mosque and the climb up Islam Khoja (56.6 m).
- Get there by train from Tashkent, Samarkand or Bukhara, or fly to Urgench, half an hour away.
- Best in April–May and September–October; add a day for the fortresses of Khorezm.
