Toprak-Kala Royal Citadel

Royal citadel of the Khorezm shahs — a 1st–6th century palace complex with the remains of 100 rooms, throne hall and temple of fire.

Toprak-Kala (‘Earth Fortress’) was the royal residence of the Khorezm shahs from the 1st to the 6th century CE — a vast mud-brick palace and temple complex on a low rise in the desert north of Khiva. The site comprises a 500×350-metre walled perimeter enclosing three monumental towers, a palace area with over 100 rooms (including the famous Hall of Kings, Hall of Victories and Hall of Black Guards, named after the wall paintings discovered there during 1930s–1950s Soviet excavations), a temple of fire, granaries and a royal court. The palace’s grandest feature was a wing containing throne rooms decorated with three-dimensional clay sculptures of kings, courtiers and deities — many now in the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, where they are among the most important Central Asian pre-Islamic artefacts in any collection. The site was abandoned in the 6th century and partly demolished in the Arab conquest; what remains is a haunting maze of decaying mud-brick walls in shades of yellow and rose, particularly photogenic in afternoon light. The on-site museum is being slowly developed; for now most context comes from a guidebook or guide.