The Uzbek culture and traditions circuit, Khiva (Day 1 afternoon cont.) - The 7th of September 2013

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Some of us climbed up to the high bastion of Ak-Sheikh-Bobo a former  city observation post so as to admire the sky of Khiva pierced by a chain of minarets, mausoleums and mosques, whose domes towered over the golden flat roofs of the houses.

We stood there in mere ecstasy ... it was almost impossible not to surrender to the beauty of the sight.

Before dinner we still walked into the courtyard of the Muhammad Rahim-Kahn Madrasah, said to be one of the best known madrasahs in Central Asia. It used to be a Muslim University, where students studied the art of versification and "exact" Sciences. Literary evenings are said to have been held in its premises in which outstanding Khivan poets read their works of Literature.

We had a fairly early dinner in which we tasted the local bread and once more the traditional Uzbek cuisine.  It had been a long day but  nobody seemed willing to go to bed and once we realised the long 10 hour road trip to Bukhara the following day had been substituted by a 40 minute flight some of us ventured into the streets around the hotel to "grab" a last khivan feeling before going to sleep.