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Khiva
ℹ️Practical info — Khiva
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🌤 Weather — 5 days
📍 Nearby
Sights nearby
💡 Tips
- Buy the 48-hour VIP ticket for the Itchan Kala (Old City); it covers most museums and the minaret, saving money and time.
- Visit the old city early in the morning or late afternoon to avoid the intense midday heat and tour groups.
- Taxis cannot enter the walled Itchan Kala, so pack light if your accommodation is inside the old town.
- Tap water is not safe to drink; rely on bottled water, and avoid ice in drinks.
- Carry enough cash (Uzbek som) as ATMs can be unreliable and card payments are rarely accepted inside the ancient walls.
🍽 Food
Seek out a traditional teahouse near the West Gate to try this specialty, usually served with a yogurt and meat stew.
Found in local eateries within the old town, these boiled dumplings are filled with raw egg that cooks inside.
Buy it hot from the street bakers outside the main gates early in the morning.
🛍 Shopping · 🧘 Quiet spots
Explore the artisan workshops inside the madrasas of Itchan Kala for hand-woven silk scarves and traditional carpets.
Look for intricately carved wooden book stands (laukh) or boxes in the stalls near the Juma Mosque.
Climb the steep stairs in the late afternoon for a quieter, panoramic view of the sun setting over the desert city.
Walk along the less-visited southern ramparts for a peaceful perspective of the mud-brick architecture.
Water temperature…
Khiva is a desert city in western Uzbekistan and is regarded as one of the best-preserved examples of a medieval Islamic city in the world. The walled inner town of Itchan Kala was the first Uzbek site to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, in 1990. Within the up to ten-metre-high mud-brick walls stand more than fifty historic buildings: the unfinished Kalta Minor minaret with its turquoise tiles, the Juma Mosque with its 213 carved wooden columns, the Kuhna Ark palace, and the Tash-Hovli harem palace. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Khiva was the capital of the notorious Khanate of Khiva, which also lived off the slave trade. Today around 100,000 people live in the city, many of them earning their living from tourism, carpet weaving, wood carving, and silk embroidery. Summers here can be brutally hot, with temperatures topping 45 degrees Celsius.
- Location: Uzbekistan
- Top sights: Itchan Kala · Museum of Khorezm national clothes · Nature Museum
- Nearby: Urgench (32 km)
- Population: ~115.000 (2025)
Best time to visit & climate
The most pleasant time to visit is Apr, May, Sep.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avg °C | -3 | -1 | 8 | 15 | 24 | 29 | 31 | 29 | 22 | 13 | 4 | -2 |
| Rain mm | 9 | 14 | 20 | 16 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 10 |
Geography
Facts
- Khiva's Itchan Kala was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1990.
- The Kalta Minor, meaning 'short minaret,' was started in 1851 but never finished.
- The fortress walls of Itchan Kala stretch for approximately 2 kilometers.
- The Juma Mosque in Khiva features 213 intricately carved wooden pillars.
- Khiva celebrated its 2,500th anniversary in 1997.
- The city is located roughly 35 kilometers southwest of Urganch.
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Route planner — Car & Motorhome
Where do you start? We build the route here, with stops and country notes along the way.
© OpenStreetMap contributors · OpenRouteService
Sights in the town Khiva (9)
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