Kalta Minor ("short minaret") sits at the western entrance of Ichan Kala. It's a fat, wildly tiled tube 26 metres tall and 14 metres in diameter at the base — squat proportions because construction stopped less than halfway.
The intended design, according to court chronicles: - Final height: 70–80 metres (would have been the tallest in the Islamic world at the time). - Purpose: the ruler wanted to be able to see the rival city of Bukhara from its top — mostly a boast; Bukhara is 450 km away. - Full covering in glazed turquoise, green and white majolica, from base to tip.
Muhammad Amin Khan was killed at the Battle of Sarakhs in 1855, fighting the Turkmens. His successor Sayyid Muhammad Khan considered restarting the work but the treasury was empty and Russian pressure was rising. The stub was left as-is.
The complete tile cladding on the surviving section makes Kalta Minor one of the most photographed monuments in Uzbekistan despite — or because of — its truncated proportions.
Khiva in photos
A short visual companion to this entry — photographs of Khiva from our travel archive.
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