Edge of the Map: Desert Forts and the Vanished Aral

Your driver meets you at Urgench airport for the 40-minute drive to Khiva. After check-in there is time for a first walk along the walls of Ichan-Kala, and the day ends with dinner in the old town.

1. Meeting at Urgench airport or railway station

   • Timed to your arrival

2. Transfer to Khiva (about 40 min) and check-in

3. 18:00Walk along the walls of Ichan-Kala at sunset with your guide

   • Timed to sunset, between about 18:00 and 20:00 depending on the month; if you arrive late, the walk moves to day 2

4. 20:30Dinner in the old town

   • After the sunset walk

A full day inside the walls of Ichan-Kala, with time for the craft workshops and the outer town of Dishan-Kala.

1. 09:00Ichan-Kala walking tour (4–5 hours)

   • Kunya-Ark citadel and its tiled reception hall
   • Kalta-Minor, the unfinished turquoise minaret
   • Muhammad Amin Khan Madrasah
   • Juma Mosque and its forest of carved wooden columns
   • Tosh-Khovli Palace
   • Pakhlavan Makhmud Mausoleum
   • Islam-Khoja Minaret, the tallest in Khiva

2. 13:30Lunch break (at own expense)

   • Try the local shivit oshi, green dill noodles

3. 15:00Dishan-Kala and the Nurullabay Palace

   • The outer town and the last khans' palace

4. 16:30Free time: woodcarving and carpet workshops of the old town

Across the Amu Darya into Karakalpakstan to three of the Elliq-Kala fortresses, the 'fifty fortresses' of ancient Khorezm. The night is spent in a yurt camp at the foot of Ayaz-Kala.

1. 09:00Drive Khiva – Kyzyl-Kala (about 2 hours), crossing the Amu Darya

2. 11:00Kyzyl-Kala, the Red Fortress

   • A square fort of the 1st–2nd centuries, partly restored

3. 11:45Toprak-Kala (10 min drive)

   • Palace city of the Khorezmshahs of the 3rd century, with its high citadel mound

4. 13:00Drive to the yurt camp below Ayaz-Kala (about 30 min)

5. 13:30Lunch and rest at the camp through the heat of the day

6. 18:00Walk up to Ayaz-Kala 1 and 2 for sunset (about 30 min climb on sand)

   • View over the Kyzylkum and the Ayaz-Kul lake. Timed to sunset

7. 20:30Dinner at the camp

   • After sunset. Optional camel ride and fire, on request

On the way to Nukus you stop at the Zoroastrian tower of silence at Chilpik. In the afternoon, the Savitsky Museum and the old necropolis of Mizdakhan.

1. 09:00Drive Ayaz-Kala – Nukus (about 170 km, 3.5 hours with the stop)

2. 11:00Chilpik dakhma

   • A ring of clay walls on a hill above the Amu Darya, used for Zoroastrian sky burials

3. 12:30Arrival in Nukus, lunch break (at own expense) and check-in

4. 14:00Savitsky Museum (about 2.5 hours)

   • Russian avant-garde painting, Karakalpak jewellery and costume, and finds from ancient Khorezm. The museum is closed on Mondays: if day 4 is a Monday, the visit moves to the morning of day 7

5. 16:45Mizdakhan necropolis and Gyaur-Kala (25 min drive)

   • Mausoleums and a hilltop fortress in use for more than two thousand years

6. 18:30Return to the hotel in Nukus

North to Muynak and its ship graveyard, then by 4x4 across the Ustyurt plateau to the present shore of the Aral Sea. It is the longest day of the tour, about 11.5 hours with some 8 hours on the road, much of it dusty off-road track, and the yurt camp has simple shared facilities.

1. 07:00Drive Nukus – Muynak by 4x4 (about 200 km, 3 hours)

2. 10:00Muynak: ship graveyard and the local museum

   • Trawlers on the old seabed and photographs of the port in its fishing days

3. 12:00Lunch in Muynak

4. 13:00Off-road drive to the Aral shore (about 5 hours with stops)

   • Sudochye lake, the old seabed and the cliffs of the Ustyurt plateau

5. 18:30Arrival at the yurt camp on the shore

   • Sunset over the water

6. 20:00Dinner at the camp

Sunrise over the sea and, in the warm months, a swim in water saltier than the ocean. Then the long drive back by way of Muynak to Nukus.

1. 06:00Sunrise on the shore and optional swim

   • Timed to sunrise, between about 05:45 and 07:15 depending on the month. Swimming May to September

2. 08:00Breakfast at the camp

3. 09:00Drive back to Nukus via the Ustyurt plateau and Muynak (7–8 hours with stops)

4. 13:00Lunch on the way

   • Packed or at a café in Muynak

5. 17:00Arrival in Nukus and check-in

Free morning in Nukus (or the Savitsky Museum, if day 4 fell on a Monday), then a transfer to Nukus airport for your flight to Tashkent or onward. Book a flight leaving after about 14:00.

1. Free time in Nukus

   • Optional: the bazaar or a second visit to the Savitsky Museum

2. Transfer to Nukus airport

   • Timed to your flight. If no flight suits, the overnight Express 054 leaves Nukus at 15:13 and reaches Tashkent South at 07:28 (sleeper, check the timetable when booking)