Khiva

04/06/09

Khiva. First of the great historic Silk Road cities we are visiting. We deffo aren’t in Kansas any more.

I’ve read about this place and its infamous slave market. It doesn’t disappoint. No slaves today though. I read ‘The Great Game’ by Peter Hopkirk. It’s a top book all about central Asia and British and Russian exploits here in the nineteenth century. It’s based on the written records of the East India Company and is full of thoroughly British officers stealing countries through the cunning use of flags and occasionally getting beheaded by angry Khans. Khiva features heavily. The book is semi fictional. The events are accurate but he has dramatised them to make it read more like a novel than a series of letters and reports.

Once again (semi) fiction has endeared a place far more that boring bullshit facts. Check the book for pictures of this place, its unreal (I haven’t put them on yet but I will). Minarets and Madrassas a go go. Plus a lot, like seriously a lot, of turquoise tile work.