Kosh Darvoza
A double gate with blue-tiled cupolas.
Iaa2023 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Panpanchik — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Iaa2023 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Vano111ru — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Panpanchik — CC BY-SA 4.0
Dishan Kala is Khiva's outer town, spread around the walled inner town of Itchan Kala: lived-in quarters, the main bazaar and working mosques. In 1842 Allah Kuli Khan ringed it with an earthen wall about 6 km long, with ten gates, against Turkmen raids. The Khivan historian Ogahi wrote that labourers and master builders summoned from all around began on 8 Rajab 1258 AH (August 1842) and finished the wall within thirty days. Craftsmen, small traders and farmers lived out here, drawing water from canals, while the court, clergy and rich merchants kept to Itchan Kala. Russian guns shelled the walls when Khiva fell in 1873, and in Soviet times much of their earth went into bricks, leaving broken stretches. Two old gates still stand. Kosh Darvoza, the double gate on the Urgench road to the north, was rebuilt in the early 20th century with twin arches under four domes and blue-tiled tower cupolas. Hazorasp Darvoza in the east, nicknamed the Sheep Gate after an old sheep market, has two big watchtowers. Outside Palvan Darvoza, Itchan Kala's east gate, lie the bazaar and the nine-domed Sayid Niyaz Shalikarbay Mosque, founded by a rice merchant, completed in 1842 and still used for Friday prayers. The town is free to explore on foot. As the crow flies, Hazorasp Darvoza is about 800 m east of Palvan Darvoza, Kosh Darvoza about 400 m north of Itchan Kala's north gate, and the Nurullabay Palace some 350 m north of its west gate. Allow one to three hours; little English is spoken.
A double gate with blue-tiled cupolas.
The Sheep Gate and its two watchtowers.
Nine domes beside the bazaar.
Outer town around Itchan Kala, Khiva
Islam Khoja MinaretKhiva's tallest minaret, about 57 metres including its base, built in 1908-1910 6 minutes walk4.7
Pahlavan Mahmud MausoleumThe tomb of Khiva's patron saint and its most sacred place for locals: Pahlavan 6 minutes walk4.6
Juma Mosque, KhivaOne of Itchan Kala's principal monuments, in its middle on the road between the 7 minutes walk4.6
Sayid Allauddin Mausoleum (Khiva)The mausoleum of Sayid Allauddin, a Sufi sheikh of Khorezm who died in 1303, is 7 minutes walk
Ak Mosque (Khiva)The Ak Mosque (Oq masjid in Uzbek, the White Mosque) is a small neighbourhood mo7 minutes walkNo, walking the outer town is free. The Itchan Kala ticket is for the museums inside the inner walls; it is valid for two days and cost 250,000 som in February 2026, per visitor guides.
It means outer fortress. Khiva was traditionally split in two: Itchan Kala, the inner fortress and old walled core, and Dishan Kala, the outer suburb that grew up around it.