Oh Khiva, a museum city, how beautiful are your numerous monuments that remind us of bygone centuries with their magnificent architecture and audacious ideas of architecture. Your center is fully included in the UNESCO World Heritage List and is famous for its unique attractions.
The Kalta Minor minaret is one of such stunning places.
According to the plan of your ruler Muhammad Amin Khan, it was to become the highest in the world. In order to achieve this goal, the foundation of impressive diameter was made, as much as 14.2 meters, and the height of the minaret should have reached more than 70 meters, overtaking the 73-meter Delhi minaret Qutb Minar.
If the construction of Kalta Minor had been completed, it would still be the world’s tallest minaret made of bricks, but this idea was not destined to be accomplished. With the death of your ruler in 1855 in the battle of Serakhs, oh marvelous Khiva, the construction stopped forever. Instead of the planned 70-80 meters, the construction was left 29 meters tall. That is why it was named Kalta Minor, which means “short tower”.
Today, even 80 meters high minaret would not impress the imagination of a traveler, because the tallest minaret in the world, the Mosque of Hassan II in Morocco reaches 210 meters, but it is not built of bricks, as well as other tallest minarets: the 142-meter minaret of Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Mosque and the 116-meter minaret of Putra Mosque in Malaysia; the 105-meter minaret of Al-Masjid an-Nabawi Mosque and the 89-meter minaret of Masjid al-Haram in Saudi Arabia.
The complexity of building high structures made of bricks is that if the walls are too thin, and the construction will begin to collapse under the slightest pressure from the outside, and if too thick, the weight of the building will become so enormous so it will be settling dangerously.
The appearance of Kalta Minor is amazing and unique: turquoise patterns on green and blue glazed tiles are intertwined with stunning maiolica. No other minaret in the world has such a decor.
In 1996-1997, the monument was carefully restored; inimitable patterns and inscriptions of the XIX century were recovered, which returned the minaret its majestic appearance.
Canaan Travel invites you to visit Uzbekistan, the country of magic Oriental fairy tales, and spend your vacation in wonderful Khiva, which has preserved unique ancient buildings, impregnated with ancient history of Central Asia, to this day.