A private guided walk through the walled inner city of Khiva — a UNESCO site with more than fifty monuments inside its mud-brick walls, and the most complete old town on the Silk Road.
Estimated price — availability and the final quote are confirmed by our team. No payment is taken on this page.
Private tour — price per person depends on group size:
| 1 traveler | $70 / person |
| 2 travelers | $45 / person |
| 3 travelers | $35 / person |
| 4 travelers | $30 / person |
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Ichan-Kala — the walled inner city of Khiva — is often called an open-air museum, and it earns the name: more than fifty madrasahs, minarets, mosques and palaces stand inside a rectangle of mud-brick walls barely 650 metres across, almost untouched for centuries.
On this private tour your local guide walks you through the highlights at your own pace: the fat, brilliantly tiled Kalta Minor minaret, the Kunya-Ark citadel of the khans, the Juma mosque with its forest of carved wooden columns, the Islam Khoja complex and the tallest minaret in Khiva, and the turquoise-domed Pahlavan Mahmud mausoleum.
Because Ichan-Kala is so compact, a half day covers the essentials and a full day lets you climb a minaret, linger in the palaces and watch the light change on the walls at the end of the afternoon.
Meet your guide at the western gate and step inside the walls. Ichan-Kala is closed to most traffic, so everything from here is on foot.
Khiva's most photographed landmark: a squat, brilliantly tiled minaret begun in 1851 by Muhammad Amin Khan, meant to be the tallest in Central Asia but left unfinished at his death in 1855 — barely a third of its planned height, and unforgettable for it.
The "old fortress" — the residence of Khiva's khans from the 17th century, with a throne room, harem, mosque, mint and a watchtower that gives the best rooftop view over the whole of Ichan-Kala.
The largest madrasah in Khiva, standing beside Kalta Minor — once a religious school, now a hotel, but still worth stepping into for its scale and courtyard.
A mosque like no other in Uzbekistan: a flat roof held up by more than two hundred carved wooden columns, some over a thousand years old, in a dim, cool hall pierced by shafts of light.
The symbol of Khiva: the tallest minaret in the city, tapering in bands of turquoise and white, with a madrasah beside it that now holds an applied-arts museum. On a full day you can climb the minaret.
The most revered shrine in Khiva, under a turquoise dome — the tomb of Pahlavan Mahmud, a poet, philosopher and legendary wrestler who became the city's patron saint. The tiled interior is among the finest in Uzbekistan.
The "stone courtyard" palace of the khans, a maze of tiled courtyards, carved balconies and a harem — the most lavish interior in the old city.
The tour ends inside Ichan-Kala — stay on to shop, climb a minaret or find lunch, or we walk you back to your hotel. On a full day the pace is slower, with time to see the walls at sunset.
Questions about this itinerary? We reply within 24 hours, and there is no payment to enquire.
The ancient desert fortresses of Khorezm, a day trip out of Khiva.
Khiva as part of the full Silk Road loop with Samarkand and Bukhara.
