Comprehensive information and links about Uzbekistan Khiva

Khiva ) is the former capital of Khwarezmia and the Khanate of Khiva and lies in the present-day Khorezm Province of Uzbekistan. Itchan Kala in Khiva was the first site in Uzbekistan to be inscribed in the World Heritage List (1991).

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The city of Khiva was first recorded by Arabic travellers in the 10th century, although the archaeologists assert that the city existed since the 6th century. By the early 17th century, Khiva had become the capital of the Khanate of Khiva, ruled over by a branch of the Astrakhans, a Genghisid dynasty.

In 1873, Russian General Von Kaufman launched an attack on the city and it fell on 28 May 1873, and although the Russian Empire now controlled the Khanate, it nominally allowed it to remain as a quasi-independent protectorate.

After the Bolshevik seizure power after the October Revolution, a short lived Khorezm People’s Soviet Republic was created out of the territory of the old Khanate of Khiva, before in 1924 it was finally incorporated into the USSR, with the city of Khiva becoming part of the Uzbek SSR.

Khiva is split into two parts. The outer town, called Dichan Kala, was formerly protected by a wall with 11 gates. The inner town, or Itchan Kala, is encircled by brick walls, whose foundations are believed to have been laid in the 10th century. Present-day crenellated walls date back to the late 17th century and attain the of 10 meters.

The old town retains more than 50 historic monuments and 250 old houses, mostly dating from the 18th or the 19th centuries. Djuma Mosque, for instance, was established in the 10th century and rebuilt in 1788-89, although its celebrated hypo