UZBEKISTAN, THE BEAUTY
KHIVA, THE ANCIENT WALLS
K
hiva is about 500 kilometers from the border. The road that takes you from Kungrad is
nice, acceptably paved, running parallel to the fertile plain of the Amu Darya river. The channel
entrusted with giving life to the desert and its green path this helps me forget the terrible passage
through the deserted Kazakh. As I crossed the river through an unstable bridge, I spotted the city
walls; that vision looked like something out of a story from the Arabian Nights! For twenty dollars
per night, I stayed in the hotel Islambek, situated within the city walls of a section called Itchan
Kala. That evening, as I got lost through the nooks and crannies of Khiva, I discovered a wonderful
place, a jewel in the desert, an oasis full of beauty surrounded by a wall that served as a superb
leg rest to the camel caravans that were heading to Persia. The independent kingdom of Khiva
resisted Russian invasions until the late nineteenth century, when it lost its independence to the
Russian Tsar in 1877.