The Islam Khoja Minaret rises 57 metres in tapering bands of glazed turquoise, white, and unglazed mud-brick. Its visibility from outside the walls makes it the city's most reliable navigation point. The interior staircase is narrow, steep, and pitch dark — you need a torch, and anyone uncomfortable in tight spaces should skip it — but the view from the top is the best in Khiva: the entire walled city in plan, the Kalta Minor squat at the other end, the desert beyond.
The accompanying madrasah, the smallest in Itchan Kala, now houses a museum of applied arts with carpets, silver, copperware, and embroidered ikat textiles from across the khanate.