The Kalta Minor, the "Short Minaret", is the first thing you see as you step through the Ata Gate. The shaft is sheathed entirely in glazed turquoise and majolica tiles arranged in bands of geometric and floral pattern — even unfinished, it is the most fully tiled minaret in Central Asia. The colour, particularly in late afternoon light, is extraordinary.
The minaret stands beside the Muhammad Amin Khan Madrasah, now a hotel. You cannot climb it — the staircase was never completed — but the surrounding plaza gives the best wide-angle shots, and the contrast between the squat blue tower and the surrounding mud-brick is the defining image of Khiva.