Miles driven: a good amount of miles
Time in Car: 3 hours
Borders crossed: 0
We woke up from our wild camp stop to the sounds of trains rumbling down the tracks. After a quick breakfast, our 3-team convoy made our way to Khiva. Maps estimated 2 hours and 15 minutes but we opted for the 2 hour and 30 minutes route as it avoided tolls, a decision we would soon regret.
The drive was like previous days’ driving - bumpy, slow, alternating decimated pavement and gravel, and occasional bottom-outs. Before reaching manageable pavement, the bumpy ride was capped off with going over a bridge - a bridge that was actually just a line of metal barges that were connected by haphazardly welded metal sheets that formed steep a-frame inclines. Each time we went over a barge connector, the collective in the car clinched and braced for impact. At each connector, no matter how slow we were going, the base of our car scraped painfully making an awful metal-on-metal noise, akin to nails on chalkboard. There were points where we though the metal was going to rip off our sump guard. After each barge connection however, to our relief, the sump remained intact and we didn’t notice any fluid dripping from our rear. We continued on to Khiva and were there within the hour.
Khiva was once a thriving city on the Silk Road and lucky for us and other tourists of Uzbekistan, its historic city walls, old town, medrassas, mosques, and minarets are still perfectly intact. From driving in, Khiva itself seems a bit out of place as its city walls tower above the Karakum desert landscape. According to legend, Noah’s son, Shem, built the city after discovering a fruitful well. By 1592, Khiva then blossomed into a bustling trade post and was made into the region’s provincial capital by Timur, the legendary Uzbek conqueror. Khiva flourished as a bustling slave trading post. During the 1700s, it was decimated by Persian invaders and rebuilt. Eventually, Khiva was consumed by the Russians and has been preserved to this day.
We arrived in the heat of day with our two convoy teams. After a quick lunch of shashlyk (kebab), we dumped our things in our hostel, conveniently just outside of the western city gate, and started our search for Uzbek som. Uzbekistan doesn’t take American credit or debit cards anywhere so cash is king. It was Sunday and also the Islam holiday of Eid al-Adha, so we were very fortunate to find a bank that was open. After withdrawing roughly 25 USD or 200,000 Uzbek som and quickly realizing that we needed a rubber band to contain our cash, we began our exploration of Ichon-Qala, old town Khiva. We first stopped at the Juma Mosque and got lost inside among the 218 wooden columns that support the roof. We stopped at a few art and history museums scattered throughout the city, but given that the exhibits offered little to no English, we didn’t get much out of them. The best part of Khiva was wandering the back and side streets and admiring the architecture. While Khiva’s Islom-Hoja and Kalta-minor minaret are the images you’ll see on postcards, I feel like the true spirit of Khiva is seen away from the main tourist draws. Wandering the alley ways that bordered the mud-lined fortress walls, we came across numerous beautiful medrassas complete with intricate blue and teal mosaic tiling. We walked the rim of the city wall and from our elevated perch, it was incredible to see daily family life of Khiva residents persevere so close to the tourist hustle and bustle. Before sunset, we ascended the western city wall’s tower to capture pictures of Khiva basking in the setting sun. The light radiated off the tan buildings and the glistened off the blue and turquoise mosaics. It most definitely was a sunset to remember.
Khiva at sunset - Islom-Hoja (middle) and Kalta-minor (right) minarets dominate the picture
At dinner, we went back into the city with our two convoy rally teams as well as another Brit who happened to be staying at our hostel. This one wasn’t doing the rally but instead was biking around the world. For dinner, we enjoyed manti (dumplings), Uzbek soups, and shivit oshi - a Khiva-only dish of dill noodles, cream sauce, carrot, onion, and beef. We ate underneath a huge medrassa that was illuminated by flood lights as an Uzbek musician laid down some music from his dutar. -FWY
Kalta-minor minaret
Juma Mosque