Islom-Hoja Medressa

From the East Gate, where the slave market was held, go back to the Abdulla Khan Medressa and take the lane to the south beside it to the Islom-Hoja Medressa and minaret - Khiva's newest Islamic monuments, both built in 1910. The minaret, with bands of turquoise and red tiling, looks rather like an uncommonly lovely lighthouse. At 57m tall, it's Uzbekistan's highest.

A host of vendors, street cleaners or random scallywags will try to collect money from you for the privilege of climbing the 118 steps to the top; you'll probably end up paying one of them sum500 to sum1000.

The medressa holds Khiva's best museum, exhibiting Khorezm handicrafts through the ages - fine woodcarving, metalwork, jewellery, Uzbek and Turkmen carpets, stone carved with Arabic script (which was in use in Khorezm from the 8th to the 20th centuries), and large pots called hum for storing food underground.

Islom Hoja himself was an early 20th-century grand vizier and a liberal (by Khivan standards): he founded a European-style school, brought long-distance telegraph to the city, and built a hospital. For his popularity, the khan and clergy had him assassinated.