Dishan-Kala

Khiva is two towns in one: the inner Ichan-Kala and the outer Dishan-Kala, each with its own defensive ring.

Dishan-Kala has come through markedly worse. Of its wall, essentially only the gates remain — Kosh-Darvoza, Gandimyan-Darvoza and Khazarasp-Darvoza.

The wall was raised on Allakuli Khan's initiative in the mid-nineteenth century, as protection against raids by Turkmen tribes. The record says the khan decreed that every subject must work on the site exactly twelve days a year — unpaid, naturally. He had more than two hundred thousand subjects, so the wall went up in about three years. It runs some six thousand metres, stands up to eight metres high and reaches six in thickness.

It is built of saman, sun-dried clay brick. Defensive towers rose from the wall at carefully measured intervals, with battlements and narrow embrasures along the top. A water-filled moat was dug around the perimeter for good measure. At nightfall every gate was shut.

The gates were part of the defences too: each has two strike towers flanking the arched passage, with watch galleries above. There were many gates, and almost every name comes from a neighbouring village or quarter. Khazarasp-Darvoza in the north-east carried the road to Khazarasp, Khanka and Yangiaryk. The eastern Pishkanyk, also called Kumyaska, took its names from a village and a mahalla. The western Angaryk led to Bagishamal, Allakuli Khan's summer residence. The southern Shikhlar was named for a mahalla, and all its takings went to the mausoleum of Pahlavan Mahmud. The south-western Tozabag led to Muhammad Rahim Khan's second summer residence. The western Shahimardan was named for a cemetery, the north-western Dashyak for a village. The northern Kosh-Darvoza is so called because it is doubled; its other name is the Urgench gate. Two more northern gates, Gadaylar and Gandimyan, likewise carry the names of a nearby quarter and village.