Classroom lesson · Khiva - the desert town inside a wall · 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan

Khiva - the desert town inside a wall

A walled old town that looks almost frozen in time

The mud-brick walls and turquoise minaret of Khiva's old town under a blue sky

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

Khiva is a small, very old town in the west of Uzbekistan, near the edge of a giant desert called the Kyzylkum. Its old centre, called Itchan Kala, is wrapped inside a tall mud-brick wall that goes all the way around. Walking through the gate is a bit like stepping into a storybook.

Tell me more

The wall around Itchan Kala is about 2 kilometres long and 10 metres high. It is made of clay bricks the colour of warm sand. Children playing inside the walls can climb the gentle slopes up to the top in some places and look out over the desert that stretches away to the west.

Inside the walls there are around 50 historic buildings, all close together: minarets (towers), madrasahs (old schools), little shops, and houses. The most famous is the Kalta-Minor, a fat, half-built tower covered in bright turquoise tiles. The plan was to build it to 70 metres high, but the builders stopped at 29 - so it looks like a tower that decided to take a break.

Khiva used to be a stop on a more southern branch of the Silk Road. Traders coming across the desert would be very happy to see the walls - inside meant water, food and safe sleep. The whole town has hardly changed in a hundred years, so when you visit you can imagine being a traveller arriving on a camel.

Outside Khiva is the Kyzylkum Desert. 'Kyzylkum' means 'red sand'. Tiny lizards, jerboas (little jumping mice) and even some wild camels live in the red dunes. At sunset, the colours of the sand and the walls blend together into one warm orange picture.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

01How might it feel to live inside a walled old town? What would be different about your day?
02The Kalta-Minor tower was never finished. Is there something in your school or town that was started but never finished? What story might it have?
03Why might desert travellers cheer when they saw Khiva's walls in the distance?

Try this

Classroom activity

Build a class Khiva. Each pupil makes a 'building' out of a small cardboard box and paints it sand-coloured with turquoise patterns. Arrange them all inside a paper 'wall' on a tabletop. Add tiny camel cut-outs at the gate.

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