The museum city that never closed
A complete walled city of clay and turquoise at the edge of the desert.
Khiva is the far end of the classical route, and it feels like it: beyond Bukhara the land empties into the Kyzylkum desert, and then, out of the haze, a perfect crenellated wall appears with a city folded inside. Itchan Kala — the inner town — is fifty monuments and a few hundred households packed into half a square kilometer.
Everything here is the color of the desert it came from, fired clay and sand plaster, which is why the bursts of turquoise — the stub of the Kalta Minor minaret, the ribbed dome of Pahlavon Mahmud — land with such force.
Khiva rewards a night's stay. The day-trip crowds drain out by six; then the swifts take over the minarets, the walls turn to amber, and you can walk the entire city in an evening with the streets nearly to yourself.
Worth your hours
The 'short minaret' — a vast turquoise-banded cylinder that was meant to be the tallest in the Islamic world until its khan died in 1855. Its unfinishedness is its charm.
Tip · It photographs best from the west gate lane in the last hour of light.
Two kilometers of massive sun-dried brick, walkable in sections, with the desert visible from the parapets.
Tip · Climb near the north gate for sunset over the rooftops.
A hypostyle hall of 213 carved wooden columns, some over a thousand years old — a forest indoors, cool in any heat.
Tip · Look for the two oldest columns, 10th-century, near the center; a caretaker will point.
The khans' town palace: courtyards of blue majolica, carved elm columns on stone bases, and a harem wing of five identical iwans.
Tip · Mornings are quietest; the tile detail deserves slow looking.
Khiva's patron saint — poet, philosopher, wrestler — under the city's most beautiful dome. The tile interior is the finest in Khorezm.
Tip · Modest dress; it is Khiva's most active pilgrimage site.
Khiva's tallest, banded like a lighthouse. The climb is steep, dark and narrow — and the view is the whole oasis.
Tip · Go early: the stairwell is single-file and heats up fast.
At the table
The practical truths
