KHIVA
Khiva – the most ancient city in the world, one of the legends based Shem – the son of biblical Noah. The heyday of Khiva falls on the XVI-XVIII century. When Khiva became the capital of the powerful Khanate of Khiva. The final appearance of the city was formed in the late XVIII – early XIX centuries. The old part Ichan-Kala – it is an open air museum, is under the protection of UNESCO. At sufficiently small territory of Ichan-Kala are two of the palace, more than 60 madrassas and mosques, mausoleums, a cathedral mosque, the market, caravanserais and baths, houses. Ichan Kala is surrounded by powerful high ramparts. Administrative and religious buildings are lined with colored tiles with incredible beauty on the patterns. Khiva is distinguished by its masters in wood carving. The columns, gates, windows decorated with sophisticated carvings. Khiva is famous for its woolen carpets and jewelery.
According to legend, Khiva was founded about 2 500 years ago when a son of Noah, Shem, discovered a well in the middle of the desert exclaimed «Khi-wa!» (which locals will take delight in roughly translating this exclamation as «sweet water»).
For the next 1 000 years or so, the area was inhabited by settlements that used the nearby Amu-Darya river to irrigate agriculture. According to the archaeologists Khiva was founded in the 5th or 6th century.
As Islam spread to the area, the first major structures were built near Shem’s well, and it became known as a small trading post on the Silk Road. First written sources date from the 10th century. The Arab traveller Al Istachri mentions Khiva in his enumeration of the most important settlements in Chorezm. The Arab geographer Ibn Battuta visited Khiva in the 14th century. He praised the emir who was untiringly taking care of law and order and reported that the city was so full of people that it was almost impossible to find one’s way in the crowd. It wasn’t until the 16th century when Khiva was made capital of an Islamic Khanate (starting a bitter rivalry with another Khan 460 km down the Silk Road in Bukhara), that the majority of Khiva’s immense architectural projects began and the town established itself as a center of power in the region. Locals will say that if Khiva didn’t have a rivalry with nearby Bukhara, it would not be the significant site that it is today. In the 19th century only a strong central power was created and taxes and money were introduced.
Khiva with its 94 mosques and 63 madrassahs is considered as an important center of Islam. Because of this significance, Khiva was recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1990.