6 reasons to visit Khiva, Uzbekistan

The Silk Highway metropolis of Khiva in Uzbekistan is commonly described as a dwelling museum. Nicely-preserved cobbled streets, clay mosques and majestic fortress partitions evoke the spirit of the Silk Highway and its caravans, which as soon as handed via in nice numbers. This yr, Khiva fought off competitors from the likes of Abu Dhabi, Lagos in Nigeria and Urfa in Turkey to be named 2024 Tourism Capital of the Islamic World. The choice was made by the 57 nations that belong to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), an intergovernmental organisation that’s striven to be the collective voice of the Muslim world for the reason that Nineteen Sixties. The OIC has a historical past of selecting lesser-visited locations akin to Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, and Gabala, in Azerbaijan, for this annual award, serving to to spice up their tourism growth and visibility considerably. Right here’s why 2024 is the time to go to Khiva. 

1. UNESCO-listed structure

Khiva’s Itchan Kala, the walled metropolis, is a UNESCO World Heritage Web site and among the best preserved and most spectacular locations on the Silk Highway. Based some 2,500 years in the past, this open-air museum is a labyrinth of streets lined with dozens of intricately embellished monuments, most of which date from the 14^th to the 19^th centuries. Khiva’s architectural highlights embrace the 185ft-high Islam Khoja Minaret, with its alternating rings of glazed blue tiles and sand-coloured bricks; the 160-room Tash Khauli Palace, constructed for 18^th-century ruler Allah Kuli Khan; and the easy but beautiful Juma Mosque, the roof of which is supported by 213 elm columns, every carved by a special craftsman.

2. Hyperlinks with historic figures

Legend has it that Khiva was based by Shem, one of many sons of Noah, the Outdated Testomony prophet finest recognized for his ark. What’s extra simply verifiable by historians, nevertheless, is the town’s connection to vital characters from the medieval world. The ninth-century polymath Al-Khwarizmi, who’s usually described as the daddy of algebra and offers his identify to the scientific time period ‘algorithm’, was born right here, as was Pahlavon Mahmud, a poet and wrestler whose superhuman energy remains to be well-known from Turkey to India, even 800 years after his loss of life. Inevitably, there are villains within the metropolis’s lengthy historical past, too: Khiva was conquered by each Genghis Khan and Nadir Shah, a strong however brutal ruler of Iran.

3. Numerous cultural programmes

With a backdrop as dramatic and historic because the Itchan Kala, it’s no shock Khiva hosts festivals and different cultural occasions all year long. Highlights of the annual programme embrace Navruz (or Nowruz), the standard Persian-Turkic New Yr, which is noticed on 21 March, the spring equinox; the Worldwide Lazgi Dance Pageant, a celebration of a chic conventional dance kind inscribed by UNESCO on its Intangible Cultural Heritage listing; and the appropriately named Pahlavon Mahmud Strongmen Video games, the place athletes from around the globe compete in excessive energy challenges akin to lifting atlas stones and dragging big anchors.

4. Preservation of cultural heritage

Khiva was the primary UNESCO World Heritage Web site in Central Asia, and nice efforts have been made to protect the town’s historic centre. It’s no imply feat to steadiness residents’ calls for for contemporary conveniences with UNESCO’s conservation necessities. The entire of the Itchan Kala is now car-free and, in the course of the pandemic, native authorities took benefit of the lull in tourism to bury all electrical energy cables and water and gasoline pipes underground, and to repave the beforehand uneven streets with engaging flagstones. Lots of the smaller monuments have been sensitively transformed into handicrafts workshops and bazaars, in addition to cafes, eating places and resorts, with the rental earnings from these companies paying for the maintenance of this treasured historic space.

5. Distinctive locations to remain

Guests to Khiva are spoilt for selection with regards to lodging choices, which fluctuate from family-run guesthouses to the four-star Farovon Khiva Resort. However when you’re on the lookout for cultural authenticity and appeal, the very best locations to remain are boutique properties in and across the Itchan Kala. Orient Star Khiva Resort set a pattern for the conversion of madrassas (Islamic universities) into easy heritage resorts, and the nonetheless faintly monastic atmosphere of resorts akin to Muso To’ra and Feruzkhan is sort of one thing to expertise. In the event you choose just a little extra luxurious, nevertheless, Singaporean media character Timothy W Go opened his first lodge, Resort Bankir Khiva, right here in 2023. Timothy has a aptitude for inside design, and the roof terrace has panoramic views of the Itchan Kala.

6. Ease of visiting

Uzbekistan has stripped again its forms in recent times and greater than 90 nationalities — together with all UK and EU passport holders — can now enter the nation visa-free for as much as 30 days. You may fly direct from London to Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s capital, 3 times per week with nationwide provider Uzbekistan Airways; or you may route through Istanbul and land at Urgench in western Uzbekistan, by which case the airport is only a 25-minute drive away from Khiva. British tour operators akin to Wild Frontiers and Trotting Soles supply small group and tailored excursions, and as English is more and more broadly spoken, significantly amongst Uzbekistan’s youth and people working within the tourism sector, speaking with locals in Khiva is straightforward, too.