Khiva city guide

Pick a place in Khiva. Open the full story or choose a shorter read.

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Kalta Minor and Muhammad Amin Khan Madrasa

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Blue and white tiled walls, carved timber supports and upper balconies around a courtyard of Tash Hauli Palace.

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Muhammad Rahim Khan II Madrasa

Text guide

The low brick domes of Sayid Alauddin Mausoleum beside a paved lane in Khiva.

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Nurullabay Palace

Text guide

Khiva, Uzbekistan ✳

Town & history

Itchan Kala walls and gates

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Use the four gates to read Khiva's town plan, commercial thresholds and unequal histories.♫

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Full story · About 2 min read✳

Khiva tour guides

Explore Khiva with ten free written guides, photos and a map. Read a Quick take or the Full story, and save guides for offline reading.

Itchan Kala walls and gates guide · Use the four gates to read Khiva's town plan, commercial thresholds and unequal histories.

Kunya Ark guide · Read the second enclosure, audience court and working spaces of the khan's citadel.

Juma Mosque guide · Compare reused timber supports inside Khiva's broad, covered Friday prayer hall.

Kalta Minor and Muhammad Amin Khan Madrasa guide · Compare an unfinished tower with the teaching and residential building commissioned beside it.

Tash Hauli Palace guide · Follow separate courts and look closely at the carved stone beneath the timber aywans.

Pahlavan Mahmud Mausoleum guide · Understand how devotion around a saint's grave acquired Khiva's royal burials and large tiled halls.

Islam Khoja complex guide · Read a small madrasa and tall tapering tower as a commission of the khanate's final years.

Muhammad Rahim Khan II Madrasa guide · Connect the school opposite the citadel with Feruz's poetry, library and patronage under political pressure.

Sayid Alauddin Mausoleum guide · Read a medieval burial chamber and later prayer room around one concentrated area of glazed tomb decoration.

Nurullabay Palace guide · Compare Khorezm carving and courtyard planning with imported heating, parquet and electric lighting.

More places nearby

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Kunya ArkKhiva

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Juma MosqueKhiva

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Sources and photo credits

Photo: Jiva, Itchan Kala 56.jpg by LBM1948 · CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized and compressed; cropped for display.

Khiva city guide

Explore Khiva

Khiva's inner town, Itchan Kala, has four gates and a dense concentration of monuments between them. The main east-west axis helps place the palaces: Kunya Ark occupies the western side, while Tash Hauli lies towards the east. The walls guide explains the gates as entrances, defences and places where commerce came under supervision. It also introduces the slave trade and the people whose lives are harder to recover from the surviving buildings.

The city extends beyond that enclosure. Nurullabay Palace, northwest of Itchan Kala, adds a later chapter with heated reception rooms, parquet and electric lighting. Keeping the outer town in view prevents the inner walls from becoming the boundary of Khiva's history.

Choose a short story or read more detail with 10 free guides to the city’s landmarks and neighbourhoods.

Walls and the courts of the khans

For royal government, start with Kunya Ark, then compare its audience court with Tash Hauli's separate household and reception courts. Nurullabay follows the same need to accommodate a ruler, household and guests into a period of different furnishings and technology.