Kalta Minor Minaret

Kalta Minor means “short minaret”, and the name is a joke at history’s expense. In 1852 Muhammad Amin Khan, having finished the largest madrasah in Khiva, ordered a minaret to stand beside it that would outdo every other. Plans called for something in the region of 70–80 metres, and some accounts claim even more. Work stopped abruptly in 1855, at 29 metres, when the khan was killed fighting the Persians near Sarakhs. His successors never resumed it.

A minaret like no other

What was built is extraordinary in its own right. The base is about 14 metres across and the shaft tapers sharply, so the stump has the proportions of a giant cup rather than a needle. It is the only minaret in Central Asia clad from top to bottom in glazed tiles: bands of turquoise, green, blue and white, with geometric patterns and lines of inscription. Some of the verses are by Ogahi, the court poet and historian who watched it being built. Tiles that fell or were removed in the twentieth century were restored in the 1990s for Khiva’s official 2,500th anniversary.

Legend

Khivans tell a different story of why it was never finished. In one version the khan of Bukhara asked the architect to build an even taller minaret for him, and Muhammad Amin Khan, hearing of it, had the architect killed before the work was done. It is a legend, and the same tale is told of other towers, but it is the version your guide will probably give you.

Experiencing it

Kalta Minor stands a few steps inside the west gate, in front of the Muhammad Amin Khan Madrasah, and it is the first thing most visitors see of Ichan-Kala. The tower itself is not normally open for climbing. Photograph it from the main street with the Kunya-Ark walls beside it, or from the walls above the west gate. Early morning light brings out the turquoise; at sunset the tiles glow against the darkening sky.