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Before going to Khiva I decided to do a “not so quick detour” to stop along some of the ancient Khorezm fortresses. Pictures can’t do justice to them.
This region was part of the ancient silk road. It was part of the Persian empire when Zoroastrianism was the state religion. Some even believe that Khorezm was the motherland of its prophet Zarathrusta.
The Khorezm fortresses were strategically built on elevated positions so they could look over the Karakalpak desert and hence protect themselves from invaders and probably more important control the trade and all the trade routes. These fortresses used to be mini cities.
Ayaz kala is probably the most famous and oldest kala. It is actually three fortresses. It was built between the 4th century BC and continued up till the 7th century. It sits kind of at the edge of the desert as towards the south one can see green pastures due to the rivers but to the other side it's the expanse of the desert. It's a pretty cool place and one can see how huge this fortress was.
Just walking towards it in the middle of the day with the sun on top and the wind blasting sand in your face makes me wonder how rough things were two thousand years ago with zero comforts.
Being at the edge of the Kyzyl Kum desert the fortresses probably served as border posts and lookout towers.
Toprak Kala, meaning “clay fortress,” dates back to the 2th century. It was a massive walled city covering an area of approximately 32 hectares and was the administrative center of ancient Khorezm. The ruins of the fortress reveal a complex urban layout, including palaces, temples, houses, and streets.
While the remains of this fortress are way smaller, they are pretty cool and once one is on top of it one realizes how big the whole fortress actually was simply by looking where the remains of where the watch towers were
Not far from Toprak Kala you will find Kizil Kala or the red fortress. Nobody really knows what the purpose of Kizil Kala was but it's a cool place to visit as it has been partially rebuilt so one can see how it probably looked in the past
And now to Khiva - what an amazing place. Not as popular as Samarkand or Bukhara and in my view it's a definite must to visit if you come to Uzbekistan.
This 2500+ year old town looks simply incredible both during the day and at night. Legend has it that Shem (Noah's son) ordered to dig a well and that's where Khiva came to be. The well is still in the old town of Khiva although inside private property. Khiva was part of the northern part of the silk road in ancient times.
The place feels surreal as if Disney made it for a movie. Obviously this city wasn't spared by Gengis Khan and most of it was destroyedbduring his bloody reign of conquests. But the city reflorished in the 18 and 19 centuries which is when all the current beauty was created.
Just walking around the different madrassas, minarets, etc is spectacular. The whole city is pretty much a museum.
The watchtower is a great place to see the views as well as to watch the sunset.
One can also do a tour of the city walls or climb atop one of the tall minarets.
One of the oldest buildings is the old mosque from the 10th century which is all made of wood and contains 213 pillars. As with most mosques the reason why the ceilings are domes was for acoustics so people can listen to the imam. But this mosque didn't have domes so they created a system of holes in the walls to ensure sound traveled all over. Very clever.
Another interesting fact is that due to high humidity in Khiva, the old mosque with its wooden pillars, has a layer of camel hair under each wooden pillar to ensure moisture doesn't go up to the wood and starts destroying the pillars.
It's also why many of the mosaics at the bottom of any wall or structure are new and have been replaced as humidity has taken a hold of them.
Same reason why people get buried above ground and not under the ground here. Couldn't really understand the logic but hey...there must be a not so scientific reason which is more tradition.
While Khiva is somewhat touristic it's not overwhelming. it's just Hard to explain how pretty all the decorations are. The whole place is decorated in amazing blue mosaics with great designs. The attention to detail is outstanding. Every building simply looks cool.
Food
Terrasa restaurant has a great rooftop terrace with amazing views for all fresco dining. Their green dill pasta is something different and definitely worth it.
The Uzbek wine...well it's Uzbek wine. Let's leave it at that.
Where to stay
As I prefer convenience vs luxury I stayed at a small guest houses within the city walls called Nazira boutique hotel. Amazing location and while the rooms are simple it also has an amazing terrace to chill from and admire the beauty of the city.
