Khiva is one of the big three Silk Road cities in Uzbekistan and its unique feature is that it's still a walled, ancient, intact town. Walk through a gate and jolt yourself back about 500 years. It's all mud brown madrasas, minarets, maybe a mausoleum, throw in a mosque. The old city, Itchan Kala, is one big museum with landmark buildings at every turn.
The West Gate. Why not, as good an entrance as any other hole in the mighty wall.
Probably Khiva's most famous site, the unfinished, stumpy Kalta Minor minaret. Mohammed Amin Khan commissioned the work in 1851. He died on a Persian battlefield and so did his dream. Or maybe it was a lack of funds. Both!
The mysterious Juma mosque, a sea of wood columns and impressive joinery.
Something new, passing as old, a camel. Ride it if you've got it. At sunrise, the whitewashed Amir Tura madrasa.
At sunset, the mighty minaret, Islam Khoja, gets the pink treatment.
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