Yesterday afternoon at a local super market we met a local English speaking guide (he helped us figure out the check out procedure). During the course of this morning we arranged with him by phone and sms to have a tour of the highlights of the old city.

So after spending some time by ourselves this morning we met Jonni at 3:00 for our guided tour. He was very knowledgeable of the history of the area and tried to help us get at least a gist of that history but frankly 3 hours of information was an overload. We learned that the Persians invaded the area in the late 1700, the Imperial Russians invaded in the late 1800s and the USSR imposed their will in the 1920's. We also learned that Uzbekistan was not a country until the USSR came along and that in earlier times the area around Khiva was called Khorezm. We saw a statue of a local 16th century mathematician who used the pen name Al-Khorezm (from which modern mathematics gets the word algorithm). We visited the Ark or citadel where the local khan lived with his wives and concubines and we visited an unusual local mosque where the roof is held up by many wooden pillars rather than having a domed roof (the more common method of construction). The picture of the blue cylindrical structure above is an incomplete minaret - the Khan who ordered its construction died before it was completed.


Interestingly the fellow who was our guide today, who called himself Jonnibek, is mentioned in the LonelyPlanet guide book but the contact details given for him in that book are incorrect - a combination of typo and obsolete email address. He would be a useful resource to any vehicle based tourist who needed help. So his email is hanza.alimov@gmail.com