The gate ramp
Straight in at upper-floor level.
Richard Mortel — CC BY 2.0 · Bruce Allardice — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Richard Mortel — CC BY 2.0 · Richard Mortel — CC BY 2.0 · Bruce Allardice — CC BY-SA 2.0
Kyzyl Kala, the Red Fortress, is a compact fort in Karakalpakstan, one of ancient Khorezm's desert castles, together called Elliq Qala, the fifty fortresses. Named for its reddish mudbrick, it is almost square, about 65 by 63 metres; its walls rise up to 16 metres, with arrow slits, and large rectangular towers jut from two sides. Raised in the 1st or 2nd century CE, like nearby Toprak Kala, which became Khorezm's capital, it was largely abandoned after the 4th century. Restored under the Khwarazmshahs in the 12th and early 13th centuries, just before the Mongol invasion, it was deserted after the conquest. Scholars see it as a garrison barracks, a nobleman's fortified residence or an outpost of Toprak Kala's defences. A ramp climbs to the south-east gate, and you walk in at upper-floor level; the vaulted ground floor is largely unexcavated. Restoration under way in 2018 rebuilt stretches of wall to halt erosion and show the fort's original look, so new masonry stands beside weathered ancient walls, and about 40 modern steps lead to the top. From there, fields and canals spread one way and desert the other, with Toprak Kala in the distance. The fort lies 27 km north of Beruniy as the crow flies and about 95 km by road from Khiva, across the Amu Darya. Toprak Kala stands 3 km east and Ayaz Kala 22 km north-east, also as the crow flies, so a day trip from Khiva by taxi, private driver or tour covers all three. There is little shade; allow 20 to 45 minutes.
Straight in at upper-floor level.
Restored stretches beside the originals.
Desert one way, fields the other.
Road to Toprak Kala, about 27 km north of Beruniy, Karakalpakstan
Only in legend: locals who crawled into the chambers under the fort in search of gold mostly found snakes sheltering from the sun, which gave rise to the tale of gold guarded by a giant serpent or a demon. Another story tells of a long tunnel to Toprak Kala, which archaeologists have not confirmed.
Sergey Tolstov's Khorezm expedition first recorded it, and excavations have turned up pottery, glass, bronze, rings, beads and traces of wall paintings, hinting that a wealthy noble lived here with his retinue. A plaster wall-painting fragment of the 1st to 4th centuries CE, found nearby in 1981, is now in the Savitsky Museum in Nukus.