Itchan Kala is the inner town of Khiva, enclosed by clay walls more than two kilometres long — the first monument in Central Asia to be inscribed on the UNESCO list in its entirety. Behind four gates, some fifty monuments fit into 26 hectares: palaces, minarets, madrasahs and mosques, among which around three hundred families still live today.
A Town Where Time Stands Still
Start from the western Ata-Darvaza gate: right beside it rises the unfinished Kalta-Minor, the "short minaret", sheathed in turquoise glaze from top to bottom like no other minaret in the world. Further on are the Kunya-Ark palace with its tiled aivan, the Juma Friday mosque with 213 carved columns from the 10th–18th centuries, and the mausoleum of Pahlavan Mahmud, the city's patron, under the most beautiful dome in Khiva. You can climb the 45-metre Islam Khodja minaret — the stairs are steep and dark, but the view is worth it.
The combined ticket is valid for two days and covers nearly every museum inside the fortress — keep it safe.
Guide's tip: spend the night inside the walls. In the evening, once the day-trip groups leave, Itchan Kala empties out, and at sunset from the ramparts by the Ak-Sheikh-bobo bastion the town turns into a clay fairy tale — the defining shot of any trip to Khiva.