Sights in Khiva
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Kuhna Ark
To your left after you enter the West Gate stands the Kuhna Ark - the Khiva rulers' own fortress and residence, first built in the 12th century by one Oq Shihbobo, then expanded by the khans in the 17th century. The khans' harem, mint, stables, arsenal, barracks, mosque and jail were all here.
The squat protuberance by the entrance, on the east side of the building, is the Zindon (Khans' Jail), with a display of chains, manacles and weapons, and pictures of people being chucked off minarets, stuffed into sacks full of wild cats etc.
Inside the Ark, the first passage to the right takes you into the 19th-century Summer Mosque, open-air and beautiful with superb…
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Ichon-Qala
The main entrance to the Ichon-Qala is the twin-turreted brick West Gate (Ota-Darvoza, literally 'Father Gate'), a 1970s reconstruction - the original was wrecked in 1920. The two-day ticket gives you access to all the sights and museums in the Ichon-Qala besides the Islom-Hoja Minaret, the Pahlavon Mahmud Mausoleum and the Akshaikh Baba Complex in Kuhna Ark. One highlight for which you do not need a ticket is the walk along the northwestern section of the wall, best at sunrise or sunset. The stairs are at the North Gate. The 2.5km-long mud walls date from the 18th century, rebuilt after being destroyed by the Persians.
Despite what the guards at the West Gate say, you…
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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…
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Pahlavon Mahmud Mausoleum
This revered mausoleum, with its lovely courtyard and stately tilework, is one of the town's most beautiful spots. Pahlavon Mahmud was a poet, philosopher and legendary wrestler who became Khiva's patron saint. His 1326 tomb was rebuilt in the 19th century and then requisitioned in 1913 by the khan of the day as the family mausoleum.
The beautiful Persian-style chamber under the turquoise dome at the north end of the courtyard holds the tomb of Khan Mohammed Rakhim II who ruled from 1865 to 1910. Leave your shoes at the entrance. Pahlavon Mahmud's tomb, to the left off the first chamber, has some of Khiva's loveliest tiling on the sarcophagus and the walls. Pilgrims press…
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Juma Mosque
East of the Music Museum, the large Juma Mosque is interesting for the 218 wooden columns supporting its roof - a concept thought to be derived from ancient Arabian mosques. The few finely decorated columns are from the original 10th-century mosque, though the present building dates from the 18th century. From inside, you can climb the 81 very dark steps of the 47m Juma Minaret (1000S).
Opposite the Juma Mosque is the 1905 Matpana Bay Medressa, containing a museum devoted to nature, history, religion and the medressa itself.
East of the Juma Mosque, the 1855 Abdulla Khan Medressa holds a tiny nature museum. The little Aq Mosque dates from 1657, the same year as the Anusha…
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Kalta Minor Minaret
Just south of the Kuhna Ark stands the fat, turquoise-tiled Kalta Minor Minaret. This unfinished minaret was begun in 1851 by Mohammed Amin Khan, who according to legend wanted to build a minaret so high he could see all the way to Bukhara. Had it been completed it surely would have been the world's tallest building, but the Khan dropped dead in 1855 and it was never completed.
East of the minaret, beside the medressa housing Restoran Khiva, is the small, plain Sayid Alauddin Mausoleum, dating to 1310 when Khiva was under the Golden Horde of the Mongol empire. You might find people praying in front of the 19th-century tiled sarcophagus. To the east is a Music Museum in…
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Alloquli Khan Medressa, Bazaar & Caravanserai
The street leading north opposite the Aq Mosque contains some of Khiva's most interesting buildings, most of them created by Alloquli Khan - known as the 'builder khan' - in the 1830s and '40s. First come the tall Alloquli Khan Medressa (1835) and the earlier Kutlimurodinok Medressa (1809), facing each other across the street, with matching tiled façades.
North of the Alloquli Khan Medressa are the Alloquli Khan Bazaar and Caravanserai. The entrance to both is through tall wooden gates beside the medressa. The bazaar is a domed market arcade, still catering to traders, which opens onto Khiva's modern Dekhon Bazaar at its east end.
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Tosh-hovli Palace
This palace, which means 'Stone House', contains Tosh-Hovli (Stone House), facing the caravanserai, contains Khiva's most sumptuous interior decoration, including ceramic tiles, carved stone and wood, and ghanch. Built by Alloquli Khan between 1832 and 1841 as a more splendid alternative to the Kuhna Ark, it's said to have over 150 rooms off nine courtyards, with high ceilings designed to catch any breeze. Alloquli was a man in a hurry - the Tosh-Hovli's first architect was executed for failing to complete the job in two years.
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Mohammed Rakhim Khan Medressa
East of the Kuhna Ark, across an open space that was once a busy palace square (and place of execution), the 19th-century Mohammed Rakhim Khan Medressa is named after the khan who surrendered to Russia in 1873 (although he had, at least, kept Khiva independent a few years longer than Bukhara). A hotchpotch of a museum within is partly dedicated to this khan, who was also a poet under the pen name Feruz.
Khiva's token camel, Katya, waits for tourists to ride or pose with her outside the medressa's south wall.
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Isfandiyar Palace
Isfandiyar Palace on Mustaqillik was built between 1906 and 1912, and like the emir's Summer Palace in Bukhara displays some fascinatingly overdone decorations in a messy collision of East and West. The rooms are largely bare, allowing one to fully appreciate the gold-embroidered ceilings and lavish touches like 4m-high mirrors and a 50kg chandelier. The harem, in case you're wondering, was behind the huge wall to the west of the palace. It's undergoing renovation and may open some day.
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Dishon-Qala
The Dishon-Qala was old Khiva's outer town, yet another creation of the 'builder khan' Alloquli, and surrounded by its own 6km wall. Most of it is buried beneath the modern town now, but part of the Dishon-Qala's wall remains, 300m south of the South Gate.
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