A Night In The Kyzylkum Desert [2] From Khiva

What's Included

Meeting and pickup

Itinerary

Day 1
Khiva - Nukus - Muynak - Yurt stay
4 stops
1
The age of this Zoroastrian ancient monument - dakhma Chilpyk (Shylpyk, Chilpak Kala) is more than 2200 years. Chilpyk is a round roofless tower, 15 meters high and 65 meters in diameter, built at the top of the rounded natural hill, 43 km away from Nukus. The Zoroastrians used it for burial of the dead. The remains of the deceased were thrown in the tower to the birds of prey. Later the bones were collected in earthenware vessels-ossuaries and dug into the ground. This way of disposal was connected with the Zoroastrian philosophy, which prohibited defiling the land with corrupted bodies. Originally the tower had a 20-meter stair with steps cut right in the hill. From the base of the tower there was a passage leading to the river. Around the tower and inside it there were found ossuaries of clay and stone, some of them are displayed today in the museums of Nukus and Tashkent.
30 minutes • Admission ticket not included
2
State Museum of Art named after I.V. Savitsky
Savitsky Art Museum in Nukus, capital of Uzbekistan’s semiautonomous Karakalpakstan Region, is one of the most extraordinary tourist destinations in the world. The museum’s formation is inextricably linked with the activities of the Khorezm Archaeological - Ethnographic Expedition, which in the 20th century excavated swathes of land in neighboring Turkmenistan and in Uzbekistan’s ancient Khorezm and Karakalpakstan regions. The head of the expedition, world-renowned scientist Sergei Tolstov, referred to the region’s majestic fortresses and monuments as "Central Asia’s Egypt." Savitsky was a member of this expedition. He began conducting independent studies, during which he collected applied folk art created by local artists.
1 hour • Admission ticket not included
3
The Regional History and Aral Sea Museum
The Muynak Regional Studies Museum also known as Ecological Museum of Muynak can be called one of the most unique museums in Uzbekistan. This museum, modest by metropolitan standards, with less than two hundred exhibits, tells the visitors a tragic story of the bygone era, when things were humming in this region and the Aral Sea was so large and affluent that it was called as sea. The museum of the Aral Sea has collected paintings of Soviet artists, old photographs, specimens of flora and fauna, canned goods, produced by the local cannery, household items and articles of arts and crafts of the peoples who lived on the Aral Sea shores, and other artifacts to form a single picture of the past and present of the Aral Sea as a whole.
30 minutes • Admission ticket not included
4
Ships Cemetery
Hidden in one of the most obscure corners of the former Soviet Union lies one of its darkest secrets; the disappearance, in a single lifetime, of the Aral Sea (Orol Dengizi), once the fourth largest inland sea in the world. Moynaq (population 12,000), 210km north of Nukus, encapsulates more visibly than anywhere the absurd tragedy of the Aral Sea. Once one of the sea’s two major fishing ports, it now stands some 180km from the water. What remains of Moynaq’s fishing fleet lies rusting on the sand in the former seabed. Muynak (Moynoq, in Uzbek Latin, Mojnak in Karakalpak) was once the largest port on the Aral, a finger of coast where a significant part of the Aral catch was processed and canned. In 1921 as the Volga region suffered a terrible famine, Lenin appealed to the Aral fleet for help and within days 21,000 tonnes of fish had been dispatched, saving thousands of Russian lives.
30 minutes • Admission ticket free
Day 2
7 ancient fortresses - Khiva
7 stops
5
Ayaz-Kala
Ayaz-Kala is an archaeological site in Ellikqala District, Karakalpakstan, in northern Uzbekistan, built between the 4th century BCE and the 7th century CE. Situated on a hilltop overlooking the Kyzylkum Desert, the site encompasses the ruins of an ancient Khorezm fortress. At the southern end of the axis is a square gateway, which is a typical element of frontier fortresses of Khorezm. The enemies' approach lies parallel to the south east walls and invaders were vulnerable to attack from above. A massive gateway defended by two rectangular towers leads into a small rectangular chamber. This chamber was overlooked on all sides by high walls from which bowmen could shoot at the enemy in case the first gate was breached
1 hour • Admission ticket free
6
Fortress Toprak Kala
Toprak Kala is dated in the Kushan period, around the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE and was the royal residence of the kings of the Khorezm. The place, having first served as a Royal sanctuary, was briefly abandoned in the early 4th century and then after some restorations, was used as an administrative citadel for the city.
30 minutes • Admission ticket not included
7
Guldursun Qala
Guldursun Kala is a fortified town. The exterior walls and towers date to the 12th century CE. Much ancient and medieval pottery and many bronze items and coins were found within the site during archeological excavations. The coins indicate that the last period of occupation is related to the year 1220, during the rule of Muhammad Khorezmshah and the time of the Mongol invasion of Khorezm Read more about - Daytrip to Ancient Fortresses of Khorezm - https://www.viator.com/tours/Khiva/Daytrip-to-Ancient-Fortresses-of-Khorezm/d50862-322876P3?mcid=56757
30 minutes • Admission ticket free
8
Kyzyl Kala
Kizil Kala was originally constructed in the Late Antique period, 1st to 4th centuries CE, but was abandoned and then rebuilt in the 12th-13th centuries on the eve of the Mongol invasions. There is some debate about how this fortress may have been used in ancient times, with some scholars proposing that it was a garrison barracks for troops, whilst others suggest it was an early example of the many fortified manor houses that were typical of Khorezm in the early medieval periods
30 minutes • Admission ticket not included
9
Koi Krylgan Kala is an archaeological site located outside the village of Taza-Kel'timinar in the Ellikqal'a District in the Republic of Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic of Uzbekistan. In ancient times, it was sited along a canal in the Oxus delta region.
30 minutes • Admission ticket free
10
The Angka-kala settlement (I–III centuries, X–XII centuries A.D.) is situated 22 kilometres north of Turtkul city. The Fortress is well preserved and has an almost square form in the architectural plan. Here you can still see a corridor formed by the outer and inner walls, rectangular towers, loopholes shaped for shooting that are cut through the exterior wall, and towers in a single line. It is noteworthy that almost all the bricks overlapping the loopholes are marked with tamga – a sign of a master. An ancient Khorezm inscription found on one of the bricks consists of five characters engraved in a single line. The monument belongs to the late antiquity culture of Khorezm (I–III centuries A.D.). The extant ceramics found in the Fortress date back to this period. However, the well-preserved fortified constructions were probably used during the Middle Ages (X–XII centuries).
30 minutes • Admission ticket free
11
Itchan Kala
Duman Kala composed of three adjacent sections – a square-shaped western enclosure with corner towers; a smaller square-shaped citadel; and an irregular four-sided northern enclosure, the remains of which can no longer been seen. The western citadel is the best-preserved section, especially along its northern side, but only small section of the eastern enclosure remains
20 minutes • Admission ticket free

Additional info

• Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness
• The youngest age we can accommodate is 7 years old.

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