Khiva
The Museum City
Khiva is the most intact and most remote of Central Asia’s Silk Road cities, the final destination of a trip back through the centuries from socialist Tashkent to a medieval slave town. Where Samarkand leaves the imagination exhausted, the city’s khanate romance is plain to see and where Urgench lies restricted to two dimensions, the city revels in all four, as visions of the past float through its narrow streets like superimposed film.
History
The written sources confirm the considerable age of the city. The historical information on Khorezm is given in “Avesta”. The “father of history” Herodot made a mention of Khorezm and the Khorezmian people. Beruni wrote about the ancient agriculture of Khorezm. Archaeological excavations also prove the age of the city to be 2500 years old. All these facts have enabled UNESCO to proclaim Khiva a city reserve, and its inner part Ichan-Kala has been recognized as a historical monument of world significance.
Khiva is one of the few cities in the world, where the historical building up has been preserved; it is a whole city in the open air. The monumental architecture of the city of the end of the 18th – mid-19th centuries formed this newly built city and the energy with which the city grew up in the course of only two-three generations of masters fascinates us until now. What could be ruinous for the urban settlement in different circumstances, namely casual constructions on little spots of land alongside rather high congestion of population became a source of unusual diversity of architectural forms. Ichan-Kala in particular, this most densely populated part of the city, became as fate willed an architectural museum whose buildings represent the best masterpieces of ancient architects.
Historical and architectural monuments of the city:
Ichan – Kala (late 18th century – early 19th century)
Madrasah of Allahkulikhan (1834/1835)
Madrasah of Kutlug-Murad-Inak (1804/1812)
Tim and Caravansary of Allahkulikkhan (19th century)
Madrasah of Abdullakhan (1865)
The Mosque and Chambers of Anush Khan (1657)
Tash-Hauli (palace Allahkulikhan) (1830/1836)
The mosque Okmachit (1832/1842)
Friday Congregation Mosque and the Minaret (1788/1789)
Mausoleum of Said Allauddin, Khiva (14th century)
Madrasah of Muhammad Amin Khan (1851/1852)
Minaret Kalta Minor (1855)
Kunya-Ark, Khiva (1868/1888)
The Minaret of Tura – Murat – Tur (1888)
Madrasah of Muhammad Amin Khan, Khiva (1871)
Madrasah of Shergazi Khan, Khiva (1718/1720)
Mosque of Baglandi (19th century)
Madrasah of Arabkhan, Khiva (1838)
