Uzbekistan Khiva Tours

An Open-Air Museum Inside the Walls

Itchan Kala, Khiva's inner walled city, is compact enough to cross on foot in twenty minutes yet holds dozens of monuments, which is why the entire enclosure carries UNESCO World Heritage status rather than individual buildings. The short, wide Kalta Minor minaret, covered in turquoise tile, was left unfinished in the 1850s when the khan who commissioned it died.

A Remote Stop on the Silk Road

Set in the Khorezm oasis near the Turkmen border, Khiva was historically one of the more isolated Silk Road cities, which also made it a notorious center of the Central Asian slave trade until the 19th century. Its distance from Samarkand and Bukhara means most itineraries treat it as a separate leg, often reached by overnight train or a flight to Urgench.