Ichon-Qala, the oldest part of Khiva in northern Uzbekistan, is entirely surrounded by imposing sand-coloured mud walls. Charming and impressive, the walls are an open-air museum: you enter through the four gates located at the cardinal points and walk through a maze of alleys to discover mosques, minarets, imposing portals, museums, fortresses and medresse up to the watchtower of Khuna Ark that rises from the walls. Walking along the walls of Ichon-Qala means returning to the time of the legendary Silk Road, of which Khiva was a strategic junction. The walls, 8 meters high and 6 meters wide, were then destroyed by the Mongols in the thirteenth century, rebuilt in the eighteenth century, are now among the major attractions of Khiva, along with the blue green domes of the mosques and minaret of Kalta Minor.
