Khiva - The caravan moves on - Uzbekistan 2026 - 3
Buchara
Samarkand
Shakhrisabz and the drive to Tashkent
To the Fergana Valley and back to Germany
Khiva
I leave our hotel shortly after 6 a.m. I want to take photos of the city without the crowds of tourists and in the beautiful morning light. It works out quite well. A few tourists are already out and about. But mostly there are women sweeping the streets with brooms made of twigs. A single Dutch tour group shows up at 6:30 a.m., but it’s easy to avoid them.
The old town isn’t very large. Apart from a few sights, there are hotels and, above all, restaurants. The well-preserved city wall runs around the old town. Turnstiles are set up at the main gates, and an admission fee is charged. But this early in the morning, they are still out of service. The admission ticket also grants access to most of the sights, museums, and so on.
After 1.5 hours, I’ve seen enough for now. The first part of the official tour will start at 9:30 a.m. anyway.
Today is going to be hot. It’s already well over 20°C, and by this afternoon, the temperature will have surpassed the 30°C mark. On top of that, the sun is beating down mercilessly from the sky. We hop from shade to shade to listen to our guide’s explanations. I often pay attention to what he has to say. Every now and then, though, I break away and head into rooms that aren’t crowded at the moment to take photos. There are quite a few groups around - from all over the world and mostly much larger than our small group. You don’t see many independent travelers. We visit several museums, former madrasas, and palaces. At some point, the sights start to repeat themselves.
The time schedule includes visiting the sights in two parts: the first ones this morning and the rest tomorrow morning. The afternoons are free time. For me, this was one of the main reasons I booked this particular trip. As it turns out, I wouldn’t have needed the extra time in Khiva at all.
At 12:30 p.m., we finish the tour, and most of the group follows the guide into the shaded courtyard of a café to have something to eat and drink. This time, the meal isn’t included in the tour price. But even in this touristy setting, the prices are more than reasonable. Around 1:30 p.m., I head back to my hotel room. Once the sweltering midday heat has passed, I’ll go out and explore a bit more.
Around 4:30 p.m., I head out again. I actually planned to stay out until our evening meeting at 7:15 p.m. Then we’re going up to the city wall to watch the sunset. So I take my tripod and filters with me. After an hour, though, I give up. It’s still 31°C (okay, that was to be expected), and a few of the scenes look better now than they did this morning because of the sun’s changed position. Overall, though, you rarely find new photo ideas when you’re walking down the same alley for the fifth or sixth time. I even walk along the outside of the rest of the city wall that I skipped this morning.
Let’s see how it goes tonight. Yesterday after dinner, I did a bit of scouting and found a few spots that are illuminated. But the problem could once again be the crowds of tourists and the ugly vendor stalls.
The sunset turns out to be a disappointment. The sky is cloudless, and there’s nothing interesting to see in the direction of the sunset anyway. We leave before the sun even sets.
Dinner doesn’t go smoothly either. The table we reserved isn’t available, and at the alternative restaurant, it takes forever for the food to arrive - at least for about half of us; the others got theirs right away. The quality was also very hit-or-miss. The restaurants in Khiva clearly cater to tourists who aren’t coming back anyway.
As planned, afterwards I take a short walk through the alleys and take a few nighttime photos. During the blue hour, some of the shots would certainly have looked better, but at least there aren’t as many tourists in the way now.
The next day also starts at 9:30 a.m. Breakfast at the hotel isn’t served until 8 a.m., and the sights don’t open early either. We visit a few museums, and by the second one at the latest, half the group breaks away and prefers to wait outside the door.
The Friday Mosque [↗] is beautiful, with its dozens of wooden columns. Although it’s currently under renovation, about two-thirds of it is still accessible. The columns are up to a thousand years old, and it’s actually not hard to tell the really old ones from the new ones. The more weathered and cracked they are, the older they are.
To top it all off, we head to the Pahlavan Mahmoud Mausoleum [↗] with its beautiful tiles and chandeliers. With that, I’ve now visited all the places I wanted to see.
At noon, today’s tour is over. As I mentioned earlier, the old town is very compact, and I can’t think of anything else I’d want to see right now. Meanwhile, the temperature has risen above 30°C again. I’m also skipping the optional lunch. The late breakfast was plentiful, and we haven’t walked very far today either. So it’s back to the hotel and to the computer. At 7 p.m., we meet up for dinner.
Looking back, one day in Khiva would have been more than enough. The only advantage of staying three nights is that it gives you a chance to wind down after the somewhat hectic first few days and really settle into the country.
All in all, Khiva is a nice but very touristy little town. Much of the architecture may be original or restored, but it feels a lot like Disneyland. Even though we haven’t seen Samarkand and the other sites yet, I can’t imagine that - as some have written - this place is the highlight of Uzbekistan.
