UZBEKISTAN · 8 DAYS
Classic Uzbekistan
Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva in eight days: the four Silk Road cities, by high-speed train and across the Kyzylkum desert.
Guide price from US$1,390 per person
Uzbekistan · 1 to 2 days
Khiva
Itchan Kala, the walled inner town, became Uzbekistan's first UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990 and still looks the way it did two centuries ago.
Why go
Why Khiva
Khiva is a complete walled city, mud walls and all, and inside it almost nothing has changed since the khans. It is small enough to learn in a day and strange enough to keep you a second.
It is a long way from everything, which is part of the point. The road across the Kyzylkum from Bukhara is the Silk Road as it was, and the fortresses of Khorezm, two thousand years old, are an hour away.
See and do
What to see
- Itchan Kala
- The inner city. Walk the walls at sunset.
- Kalta Minor
- The fat turquoise minaret, begun in 1852 and never finished.
- Juma Mosque
- A forest of 213 carved wooden columns, some from the tenth century.
- Kunya-Ark and Tash Hauli
- The old citadel and the khans' palace, with its tiled harem courtyard.
- Islam Khoja minaret
- The tallest in the city. Climb it for the view.
- The fortresses of Khorezm
- Ayaz-Kala and Toprak-Kala, mud citadels in the desert, a day trip or on the way to Nukus.
In pictures
A closer look
Practical
When and how
- How long
- 1 to 2 days
- Best time
- April to May and September to October. Very hot in summer and cold in winter.
- Getting there
- Fly from Tashkent to Urgench, thirty minutes from Khiva. Or drive from Bukhara across the desert, six to seven hours; there is also a slower train.
Tours
Trips that go to Khiva
UZBEKISTAN · 12 DAYS
Silk Road in depth
The four cities plus the Fergana Valley's silk and ceramics, Timur's birthplace at Shakhrisabz, and a night in a yurt in the Kyzylkum.
Guide price from US$2,190 per person
KARAKALPAKSTAN · 4 DAYS
Karakalpakstan and the Aral Sea
The Savitsky collection in Nukus, the ship graveyard at Moynaq, a night on the old seabed and the desert fortresses of Khorezm.
Guide price from US$790 per person
Plan a trip
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