Khiva's walled inner city, the Itchan Kala, is the best-preserved medieval town in Central Asia — a UNESCO World Heritage Site of minarets, madrassas, and turquoise-tiled palaces packed within mud-brick walls. It can feel like a museum rather than a living town, and in some ways it is: the Soviets relocated most residents outside the walls, and tourism now dominates. But in the early morning or late afternoon, when the tour groups thin out and the light turns golden on the clay walls, Khiva is extraordinary.
The Kalta Minor minaret — fat, stubby, and covered in unfinished turquoise tiles — is the city's most recognisable landmark. It was meant to be the tallest minaret in Central Asia, but the khan who commissioned it died before it was completed. The Juma Mosque, with its forest of 213 carved wooden columns (some dating to the 10th century), is the other standout. Wandering the streets between these landmarks is the real pleasure — the scale is small enough to cover everything on foot in a day.
Most visitors reach Khiva via Urgench, 35 km to the northeast. Urgench has the nearest airport (with flights to Tashkent) and is the main bus hub for connections to Bukhara and beyond.