A walled desert oasis frozen in time
Khiva's inner town, Itchan Kala, is enclosed by crenellated mud-brick walls and packed with more than fifty historic monuments. It was a slave-trading khanate and the last stop before the desert crossing to Persia. Walk its lanes past the stubby, tiled Kalta Minor minaret, left unfinished, the carved wooden pillars of the Juma Mosque and the palaces of the khans. Climb the Islam Khodja Minaret or the watchtower of the Kunya Ark at sunset, when the whole town turns gold.