Khiva

Khiva is "museum under blue sky" which is over 2 500 years old.

Khiva is a jewel of the Orient, a man made wondering city! The Khoresm Khanate where Khiva was situated, was a very famous and powerful state in the 4th century BC. Khiva has existed for a long time as a transcontinental pit-stop from Gurgani to Merv. Khiva is an old place. Unlike the other ancient cities of Asia, the historic heart of it is so well preserved that sometimes it seems that life has been almost squeezed out of it. There one may admire Kunya-Ark citadel and the Tash-Khauli palace, the residence of the Khan. Walking around the remarkable places of Ichan-Kala, you will notice the magnificent simplicity and monumentality of medieval architecture, and watch the delicate wood carving and skilled interweaving of ornamentation. The tall and beautiful silhouettes of towering minarets, hemmed in by clay houses with flat roofs and surrounded by the strong clay walls of a powerful fortress will give you a nice and clear idea of a typical feudal city in Central Asia.

Here you will find the Pakhalavan Makhmud mausoleum (1835), the Mukhammad Amikhan madrasah (1855), the Palace Ensemble Kunia-Arki Jash Hauli (1841), and the Allakulikhana caravanserai (1855). Actually, Khiva is being the leader among ancient Central Asian cites in the number of fascinating minarets. It is really made up of madrasah, mosques and minarets.