Still travelling along the Uzbekistan section of the Silk Road in Central Asia, we left beautiful Bukhara and headed north to Khiva, a city often described as a living museum. It is said that Khiva was founded by Shem the son of Noah after he discovered water in the middle of the desert. But archaeologists date Khiva back to the 5th or 4th centuries B.C.
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| Pahlavan Mahmud Mausoleum, Khiva (UNESCO), Uzbekistan |
From being an oasis in the desert, Khiva developed into one of the main trading posts on the Silk Road. Now days, this captivating walled city is full of narrow cobbled streets lined with adobe and mudbrick buildings, and has many historic mosques, mausoleums, minarets and madrasas (school for the study of Islam).
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| Kyzylkum desert from our train to Nukus, Uzbekistan |
To get to Khiva, we crossed the Kyzylkum desert on an overnight train taking 9 hours. We had a private compartment on the train, and were provided with clean linen, a pillow and towel, but took our own food. The next morning and after a decent sleep, we left the train in Nukus city, found the taxi we had booked, and were driven a further two hours across the desert to Khiva.
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| A street in Ichon-Kala, the old town of Khiva (UNESCO), Uzbekistan |
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| Gardens, smiling camel, Leigh and a mudbrick wall, wedding, Khiva (UNESCO), Uzbekistan |
As soon as we unpacked, we headed out to explore. In the town centre, we saw beautifully laid out gardens and shaded areas, a 2-humped camel who looked like he was smiling, and many large adobe and mud-brick structures. At one point, we came across a wedding ceremony. Apparently, the wedding party walks through the town with music, and people dance in the street. It was quite a sight, and we saw several others after that.
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| External wall of Ichon-Kala Citadel and Tash-Darvaza, Khiva (UNESO), Uzbekistan |
Over the days we were there, we regularly walked the old streets seeing many, many historic buildings. Highlights were the defensive walls of the Ichon-Kala Citadel and its four impressive entry gates of Ata-Darvaza (main gate), Bagcha-Darvaza (garden gate), Tash-Darvaza (stone gate) and Palvan-Darvaza (heroic gate).
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| Throne Room of Kunya-Ark Citadel, Khiva UNESCO, Uzbekistan |
Another highlight was the Kunya-Ark Citadel, which is a citadel within the main Inchon-Kala Citadel. Built in 1688, it was the khan’s quarters with mosques, reception halls, harems, and official rooms. It is the oldest surviving residence of the Khiva khans. We especially loved the throne room with its bright colours and majolica panels.
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| From left top: Kunya-Ark Citadel gates and Islam Khoja Minaret. Below: the Murad Inaq and Mohammed Rakhim Khan madrasas. |
Other places that took our fancy were the Kunya-Ark Citadel gates, the 45-metre-high Islam Khoja Minaret with its beautiful rings of glazed blue tiles and sand-coloured bricks, the Murad Inaq Madrasa with its ornamental ganch relief decoration, and the Mohammed Rakhim Khan Madrasa which is one of the largest in Khiva.
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| Kalta Minar Minaret, Khiva (UNESCO), Uzbekistan |
We also loved the Kalta Minar Minaret with its chubby look and beautiful blue, green and white majolica and tiles. You can see this minaret from everywhere in the city. At its base, the streets are jam-packed with vendors selling clothing, souvenirs and such, but they don’t force their wares upon you so you are not constantly hindered by touts as in some Asian and African cities we've been to.
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| Marg at a rooftop restaurant, Khiva (UNESCO), Uzbekistan |
We found some interesting places to eat while we were there. Many of Khiva’s restaurants are on rooftops, so you are guaranteed views and breezes. One sultry night, we found a lovely spot to see Khiva's town-glow. On a different day, we stopped for a cold drink at a rooftop café that overlooked the Citadel courtyard. As we looked below us, we could see some bread-makers.
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| Bread-makers in the courtyard of Kunya-Ark Citadel, Khiva (UNESCO), Uzbekistan |
The bread-makers were women, and the bread is traditionally round and thick. It is made in a tandoor oven and we could see bread almost ready to come out of an oven below. The women working the tandoor were covered head to ankle to protect them from the heat. The woman taking the baked bread out of the oven wore long protective gloves and worked with long tongs. It looked like a hazardous business but the bread is worth it!
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| Narrow street in Khiva (UNESCO), Uzbekistan |
Walking back from town on our first day, we somehow managed to get lost in Khiva’s little winding streets. We had to ask directions using Google Translate and eventually made it back to our guest house. We were worried that our instinctive and usually very good navigational skills were failing us, but thought, ah-well its only once. But we got lost again that night, and wandered around in the dark for ages before getting home. Bother!!!
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| Kids playing in the residential area of Khiva (UNESCO), Uzbekistan |
We also wandered into the main residential area of Khiva. The old town is home to over 300 families that make a living from their craftwork, cleaning, sales and hospitality jobs. As in Bukhara and Samarkand, the old buildings have been carefully restored and re-purposed as shops, eateries and hotels. But somehow, Khiva has kept a relaxed natural charm and we found it less touristy than Bukhara.
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| Marg in the Kunya-Ark Citadel, Khiva (UNESCO), Uzbekistan |
After a few lovely days in Khiva, it was time to pack up and move on. Khiva was our last stop in Uzbekistan and we have really enjoyed seeing some of this country. The Uzbeks are friendly people and proud of their country, and the places we visited were clean and had a reasonably good infrastructure. Overall, we found it very easy to travel there and felt very safe. Next, we cross the border into Turkmenistan, but we’ll write about that in the next blog.
This blog is one in a series about our travels along the Silk Road of Central Asia.