Girih
Geometry
Interlaced straps and stars, cut in deep relief. The eight-pointed star stands for the cosmos; the endless knot, for eternity. It is on the doors, the columns, and the tiles of the Kalta Minor.
Khiva · Khorezm · Uzbekistan
A quiet hotel in Khiva, walking distance from Ichan Qala
Fifty-four madrasahs once stood inside those walls. Twenty-nine rooms stand on our quiet street outside them — close enough to walk through the gate before breakfast, far enough that you actually sleep.
Our street
Where we would send
our own family to eat
Most hotels hand you a map with their own restaurant circled. We are surrounded by good ones, and there is no sense pretending otherwise. Here is what is genuinely near, and how long it takes to walk.
GastronomSupermarket
Water, fruit, and the charger you left at home.
1min
TandiriyRestaurant
Bread and meat straight out of the tandir.
3min
Qala RestaurantRestaurant
Named for the fortress, like us.
4min
Moon RestaurantRestaurant
Somewhere to sit for a long dinner.
5min
SafiaPastry & cakes
For the ones who came for the sweets.
4min
FeedUpFast food
When the children have had enough of plov.
5min
Ichan Qala
Six centuries of ambition,
inside one wall
Khiva's khans competed by building. By the start of the twentieth century there were around sixty-five madrasahs in the city — fifty-four of them inside these walls. Almost everything below is a few minutes on foot from our door.
1686Citadel
Kunya Ark
The khans' own fortress, begun in 1686 on far older foundations. Climb the Ak-Sheikh-Bobo watchtower and the whole of Ichan Qala is laid out beneath you — the single best view in Khiva, and the cheapest.
1718–26Madrasah
Shergazi Khan Madrasah
Built, it is said, by Persian slaves promised their freedom when the work was done. Fearing the khan would break his word, they killed the foreman in 1720. The inscription above the door records what he is supposed to have said: I accept death at the hands of slaves.
1788Mosque
Juma Mosque
No courtyard, no dome — just a dark flat-roofed hall held up by 213 carved wooden columns, light falling through openings in the ceiling. Many of the columns are far older than the mosque; some were taken from buildings a thousand years gone.
1830–38Palace
Tosh Hovli
Alla Kuli Khan wanted it finished in two years. It took eight. The reward is the finest majolica and wood carving in the city — and a harem with a separate courtyard for each of the khan's four wives.
1852–55The great failure
Muhammad Amin Khan Madrasah & Kalta Minor
The largest madrasah in Central Asia — 125 cells, 260 students — and beside it a minaret meant to stand eighty metres and humble every tower in the Muslim world. Its base is fourteen metres across. Then the khan was killed fighting the Turkmen in 1855, and the work simply stopped at twenty-nine metres.
What is left is squat, immense, and completely sheathed in glazed tile — the only minaret in Khiva that is. The city's most photographed object is a building that failed.
1876Madrasah
Muhammad Rahim Khan II
A khan who wrote poetry under the pen name Feruz, and built one of the largest madrasahs in Khiva — seventy-six cells around two courtyards.
1908–10Minaret
Islom Xo'ja
The last great building of the khanate, and the tallest: 56.6 metres, banded in green and blue tile, narrowing as it climbs. Three years after it was finished, the vizier who built it was murdered on his way home from the palace.
1990UNESCO
The first in Uzbekistan
Ichan Qala became the country's first World Heritage Site — twenty-six hectares, fifty-odd monuments, ten metres of mud wall. And still a living town: behind the monuments are houses with washing on the line.
The craft
Every pattern here
means something
The bands running down this page are not decoration we invented. They are the two ornamental systems of Khorezm, still cut into doors and columns by carvers working a few minutes from this hotel — and still woven into silk by the women at the carpet workshop inside the walls.
Islimi
The vine
A stem that never ends, curling back on itself forever. It is the paradise garden of Persian poetry — carved into juniper, elm and mulberry by hand, in workshops where the floor is deep in shavings.
Pakhsa
Mud and straw
Under all the glaze is clay. The walls of Ichan Qala are mud brick, rebuilt over and over for twenty-five centuries, and they are the reason the whole city glows at six in the evening.
The four dyes of the silk workshop
IndigoBlue
Madder rootRed
SaffronYellow
Pistachio shellBlack
Inside the walls, in a madrasah built in 1873, more than forty women weave silk carpets on upright looms — three weavers, three months, one carpet. The designs are copied from the tiles and the carved doors around them. We will take you there; it is one of the few workshops in Uzbekistan where nobody will pressure you to buy.
Why sleep in Khiva
Everyone leaves at five.
You walk back in.
The coaches come from Urgench in the morning and are gone by evening. Stay the night and the walled city empties around you — the mud walls turning gold, the Kalta Minor with nobody standing in front of it, and streets that belong again to the people who live in them.
That hour is the whole reason to sleep in Khiva rather than pass through it. Our door is a few minutes from the gate, which means you can always go back for a jacket.
Rooms
Twenty-nine rooms
that change shape
Our beds move. A room is a twin tonight and a double tomorrow — made up for whoever is coming, not for whoever came last. Tell us who is travelling with you and it is arranged before you arrive.
| Arrangement | Sleeps | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Twin | Two, apart | Any room |
| Double | Two, together | Any room |
| Extra bed | Three | Most rooms |
| Triple | Three | Rooms 110, 211, 214 |
Getting here, and getting out
A hotel that is also
a travel company
Anor Qal'a is part of Guided Travels. The things most hotels shrug at, we simply do.
Airport pick-up
Urgench airport is about thirty kilometres away. Send us your flight number and we will be standing in arrivals — and we will take you back for the return.
Train station transfer
Khiva has its own station. We will meet the sleeper from Tashkent, and get you back onto it when you leave.
Tours, in Khiva and beyond
Walking the old city with someone who can read the doors. Wood carving with a master. The desert fortresses of ancient Khorezm, out where nobody goes. Ask at the desk in the evening for the next morning.
The roof
Go up at seven. The minarets turn copper, then black.
Before you book
Questions we are asked
every week
How far is the hotel from Ichan Qala?
A few minutes on foot. Anor Qal'a is at 17B Mustaqillik street, a short walk from the Ota Darvoza — the west gate, and the way most people enter the walled old city. Khiva is small and flat; you will not need a taxi.
Do you arrange airport transfers from Urgench?
Yes. Urgench airport is roughly thirty kilometres from Khiva. We meet you there, or at Khiva railway station, and drive you to the door — and back again when you leave. Call the reservation office on +998 98 001 59 99, which also takes WhatsApp and Telegram.
Is breakfast included?
Breakfast is served every morning in our own dining room and cooked here. Ask at the desk whether it is included in your rate, and tell us at check-in if you will not be eating.
Can you arrange guided tours in Khiva?
Yes — Anor Qal'a is part of Guided Travels. Walking tours inside Ichan Qala, wood-carving workshops with a master carver, the silk carpet workshop, and longer days out to the desert fortresses of Khorezm.
Can three people share a room?
Yes. Most rooms take an extra bed, and rooms 110, 211 and 214 are proper triples — either three single beds, or a double and a single. Tell us who is coming and the room is arranged before you arrive.
Do you host weddings and celebrations?
We keep a second dining room for exactly that, so a celebration never has to be cleared away by breakfast — with rooms upstairs for the guests who stay. Call us with a date and a number of guests.
Stay the night
The quiet side of Khiva
Twenty-nine rooms, a short walk from the wall. Book direct and talk to the people who will actually be at the desk when you arrive.