Ayaz-Kala Desert Fortress

A 4th-century-BCE Khorezmian desert fortress on a sandstone bluff in the Kyzylkum desert — the most photogenic of the 'desert castles' north of Khiva.

Ayaz-Kala (‘Fortress of the Wind’) is one of the most striking of the dozen ‘desert castles’ (Qalas) of ancient Khorezm — a network of fortified Khorezmian sites built between the 4th century BCE and the 8th century CE on the southern fringe of the Kyzylkum desert north of Khiva. The site comprises three distinct fortresses: Ayaz-Kala 1 (the largest, 4th–3rd century BCE) sits on a 60-metre sandstone bluff with a single 12-metre-high mud-brick perimeter wall enclosing barracks, granaries and a temple complex; Ayaz-Kala 2 (1st–2nd century CE) is a smaller royal residence on a lower hill nearby; Ayaz-Kala 3 (lower-elevation, 4th century CE) was a fortified palace. The Khorezmian civilisation that built these fortresses was a Zoroastrian Persianate state predating the Achaemenids, controlling the irrigation oases along the lower Amu Darya and trading with both the Greek world and the Mongol steppes. The fortresses were abandoned after the Arab conquest in the 8th century and gradually reclaimed by the desert. EcoNomad includes Ayaz-Kala on most Khorezm-region itineraries, often combined with an overnight at the small yurt camp at the foot of the bluff.