"Ichan-Kala" Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve

The only fully preserved medieval fortress city ("open-air museum") in Central Asia, surrounded by massive mud-brick walls with 4 gates: Ata-Darvaza (western), Palvan-Darvaza (eastern), Tash-Darvaza (southern) and Bagcha-Darvaza (northern).

Ichan-Kala — the "inner defensive ring" — is a whole medieval city inside Khiva, almost untouched by time. It was the first site in Central Asia to be inscribed in full on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and from it you can understand what the cities of the medieval East looked like in general. Inside there are more than four hundred traditional dwellings and around sixty architectural monuments; Ichan-Kala received the status of historical and architectural reserve in 1969.

The start of construction is generally taken to be 1598: the Amu Darya once again changed its course, and the capital of the Khorezm oasis was moved from Gurgandj — Urgench — to Khiva. Since then the city has been destroyed and rebuilt more than once.

The wall around it is massive: eight to ten metres high, five to six metres thick, 2250 metres long along the outer perimeter. It is built of sun-dried clay brick. Defensive towers rise at exactly every thirty metres, and along the top run crenellations with loopholes. The whole city was encircled by a moat with water — its relief can still be made out on the southern side. Four gates, reinforced with towers, led inside, and above the gates ran observation galleries.

The area is about one square kilometre in all, so it is quite possible to walk around it on foot. The main street runs from the western gates to the eastern ones, and almost everything important stands on it. Closer to the western gates is the Kunya-Ark citadel, begun in 1686. To the left of the western gates is Khiva's largest madrasa, Muhammad Amin-khan (1845–1855). A little further on is the short Kalta-Minor minaret of the same years: 29 metres instead of the planned eighty. Closer to the centre rises the Muhammad Rahim-khan madrasa (1876). By the eastern gates stand the Tash-Hauli palace (1830–1838) and the Allakuli-khan madrasa (1834–1835), which housed the city library. South of the centre is the mausoleum of Said Alauddin, begun in the second half of the 14th century, and beside it the Islam-Khodja ensemble (1908–1910), the Shergazi-khan madrasa (1718–1726) and the mausoleum of Pakhlavan Mahmud.

Almost all of this is finished in majolica in shades of blue, dark blue and white — at sunset it is especially beautiful.