This must have been a normal saying in Khiva, it was the biggest slave market in Central Asia until the 19th century. The slaves were brought from Turkmen tribes from the Karakum dessert and from what today is Kazakhstan. Now it’s a wonderful city in which walking is a pleasure.

I start where I left it in the previous post, on the top of the Islom-Hoja minaret.

Each corner has something to see. The city has 16 madrasas.

A camel they’ve put there as decoration.

Out of the city wall there are also interesting things to see. Here a mosque with a more humble minaret but equally beautiful.

A woman cooking bread. They have their ovens outside. The bread is awesome.

Khiva was a secondary branch of the silk road. Even though it started growing in the 17th century it didn´t become important until Timur converted it to the capital of his empire in the 16th century.

I see people talking in Spanish in the street and restaurants. I listen to the conversations, many times I enjoy more listening to the conversations that revealing my nationality and talking with them. The conversation is suspicious, too many familiar names… They are from Burgos (my home town in Spain).

This is how traditional columns are in Uzbekistan, with carved wood and this shape.

Even it’s small I’ve been walking a lot in Khiva, I wanted to see each mosque, each caravanserai and each madrasa. My knee is quite well after being run over in Tehran. I miss my osteopath Daniel, the knee has been cracking each time I stand up.

At the market outside the walls.

There’s nearly nobody living in the city, the living houses have been removed so there are only tourists left. Preserving is good but they’ve gone a bit too far, there is not much atmosphere on the streets, it would be nicer to see some movement of locals around. It’s also true that the silence of walking tourists than the sound of traffic.

Uzbek hats, they are funny. They are made of a tough material that can be bent and they become flat.

The moon accompanies me one of the days. If a sunset in Khiva is already beautiful, a sunset with a moon is a gift.

I love the colours of this minaret, seems it’s been drawn in a tale. In Uzbekistan the minarets have no muhaidins or speakers that act as muhaidins. The Azan (calling to pray) is forbidden since 1998 after a wave of terrorist attacks.

The west gate and the unfinished minaret of Kalta. Mohammed Amin Khan wanted to build a minaret high enough to see all the way to Bukhara (over 300km away) but in 1855 died four years after it was started so it was never finished.

Again in the Kalta unfinished minaret and part of the Khuna Ark fortress.

The wall was rebuilt in the 70s.

My time in Khiva finishes, I leave tomorrow.

In the guess house I’m staying I meet Pili, an Spanish girl that is travelling by herself for 15 days. We talk and I tell her I want to go to the Aral sea, I find interesting the idea of going but going is expensive and I want to share the cost with someone. We decide to go together. I think it’s going to be an emotional place but sad.

See you soon.

Fernando.