Khiva is an open-air museum city and the former capital of the Khanate of Khorezm, heir to a civilisation many thousands of years old. Its walled inner town, Itchan Kala, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in its entirety: eight-metre clay walls, minarets, palaces and madrasahs create the feeling of time standing still — as if the caravan simply hasn’t arrived yet.
Inside the walls everything is close at hand: the turquoise unfinished Kalta-Minor minaret that has become the symbol of the city, the Kunya-Ark citadel with its viewing platform, the Tash-Hauli palace with the carved iwans of its harem courtyard, and the Juma Mosque, whose roof rests on more than two hundred wooden columns — some of them a thousand years old. For a panorama of the whole of Itchan Kala, climb the Islam Khodja minaret, the tallest in town.
A local guide’s advice: one or two days are enough for Khiva, but be sure to stay overnight — in the evening, when the tour groups leave, the city becomes itself again. Meet the sunset on the fortress walls or the Kunya-Ark bastion: at that hour the clay burns gold. The easiest way in is via Urgench, and the best time to come is spring or autumn — in summer, Khorezm bakes at over forty degrees.