Khiva & Karakalpakstan

The lower Amu Darya was the heart of Khwarazm, or Chorasmia, one of the oldest civilisations of Central Asia. Irrigated farming here goes back thousands of years, and from the mid-first millennium BC the region was ruled from fortified cities along the delta. Ayaz Kala, Toprak Kala, whose palace held wall paintings and royal archives, Kyzyl Kala and many others guarded canals and caravan routes. Khwarazm was a province of the Persian Empire, and local tradition links it with the early history of Zoroastrianism, whose relics include the Chilpyk tower near Nukus.

After the Arab conquest and the rise and Mongol destruction of the Khwarazmshahs' empire, based at Kunya-Urgench, now in Turkmenistan, the Amu Darya shifted course, and in the 17th century the Uzbek khans moved their capital to Khiva. The Khanate of Khiva became notorious for its slave market and raids across the desert. Russia conquered it in 1873 and made it a protectorate, and in 1920 it became the Khorezm People's Soviet Republic before being divided between the Uzbek and Turkmen republics.

The Karakalpaks, a Turkic people, settled on the delta by the 18th century. Their lands became an autonomous region and later the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan within Uzbekistan. From the 1960s Soviet irrigation for cotton drained the Aral Sea, ruining its fisheries, and in 2022 plans to limit Karakalpakstan's autonomy sparked protests in Nukus in which people were killed; the plans were dropped.

Khorezm has a strong regional identity, with its own Uzbek dialect, closer to Turkmen and Oghuz Turkic than the speech of Tashkent, and a lively tradition of music and dance. The lazgi, a fast, expressive dance, is Khorezm's emblem and was listed as UNESCO intangible heritage in 2019. Khiva's woodcarvers are known for carved columns and doors, and its potters and embroiderers supply the old town's workshops.

Karakalpakstan has its own language, close to Kazakh, alongside Uzbek and Russian, and its own flag, parliament and constitution. The Karakalpaks' name means "black hats", and their culture includes yurts, felt-making, bright embroidery and epic poetry, including the tale of Qırq Qız, the forty maidens who defended their land. Pilgrimage matters too: the Mizdakhan necropolis and the shrine of Pahlavon Mahmud in Khiva, the city's patron saint, draw pilgrims.

Urgench, the capital of Khorezm, is a modern Soviet-built city, while Khiva is a smaller town where families still live in and around Itchan Kala and tourism has become the main business. The Khorezm oasis is densely farmed, with cotton, rice, wheat and melons, and canals from the Amu Darya run between villages of mud-brick houses.

Nukus, the capital of Karakalpakstan, is a low-rise Soviet city of wide streets and apartment blocks, with a university and the Savitsky Museum. Outside the city the land is flat and increasingly saline, and towns such as Moynaq, once busy with fishing and canning, have lost most of their work. Chemical dust from the dried Aral seabed, poor water quality and related health problems remain serious concerns, and many young people leave to find work in Tashkent, Kazakhstan or Russia.

Khorezm has its own cuisine within Uzbekistan. The best-known dish is shivit oshi, a dish of bright green noodles from Khiva. As elsewhere in the country, plov of rice, meat, carrots and onions, cooked in a kazan cauldron over an open fire, is the centrepiece of family gatherings and celebrations, and round flat breads are baked in clay tandir ovens.

Karakalpak food is closer to Kazakh cooking, as the Karakalpaks' culture and language are closer to those of the Kazakhs. Fish from the Amu Darya and delta lakes was once the staple of Moynaq and is still eaten where available. Fish has a long history here: the medieval geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi explained the name Khwarazm as referring to the cooked fish that its people ate, and Moynaq was a centre of industrial fishing and canning until the Aral Sea retreated.

The Khorezm oasis grows melons, apricots, grapes and rice. Green tea is drunk throughout the day and is automatically offered to every guest, and in the villages guests are welcomed with bread, dried fruit and sweets.

Khiva's Itchan Kala is a complete walled town: the Kalta Minor, an unfinished tiled minaret; the Islam Khoja minaret, the tallest in the town; the Juma mosque with its forest of carved wooden columns; the Kunya Ark fortress and the Tash Hauli palace with its tiled courtyards; and the Pahlavon Mahmud mausoleum. The outer town, Dishan Kala, holds the Nurullabay palace.

Across the Amu Darya in Karakalpakstan, the desert fortresses of Khorezm stand on low hills and plains: Ayaz Kala, Toprak Kala and Kyzyl Kala, with other sites such as Koy Krylgan Kala further out.

Nukus's Savitsky Museum holds one of the largest collections of Russian avant-garde art in the world, gathered by Igor Savitsky from the 1960s. Near the city lie the Chilpyk tower and the Mizdakhan necropolis. Far to the north, Moynaq's ship graveyard and museum tell the story of the Aral Sea, whose shore now lies more than 100 kilometres away, and the Ustyurt plateau stretches west towards Kazakhstan.