Russian Empire
Which country did Khiva belong to in Sep 1882?
Khiva Khiva ( / , خىۋا ; , ; alternative or historical names include Kheeva , Khorasam , Khoresm , Khwarezm , Khwarizm , Khwarazm , Chorezm , and ) is a city of approximately 90,000 people in Xorazm Region , Uzbekistan . According to archaeological data , the city was established around 1500 years ago . It is the former capital of Khwarezmia and the Khanate of Khiva . Itchan Kala in Khiva was the first site in Uzbekistan to be inscribed in the World Heritage List ( 1991 ) . The astronomer , historian and polymath , Al-Biruni ( 973-1048 CE ) was born in either Khiva or the nearby city of Kath . Etymology . The origin of the name Khiva is unknown , but many contradictory stories have been told to explain it . A traditional story attributes the name to one of the sons of the prophet Noah : It is said that Shem [ from whence the word Semitic is derived ] , after the flood , he found himself wandering in the desert alone . Having fallen asleep , he dreamt of 300 burning torches . On waking up , he was pleased with this omen , he founded the city with outlines in the form of a ship mapped out according to the placement of the torches , about which he had dreamt . Then Shem dug the Kheyvak well , the water from which had a surprising taste . It is possible to see this well in Ichan-Kala ( an internal town of Khiva City ) even today . Another story relates that travellers passing through the city , upon drinking the excellent water , would exclaim Khey vakh ! ( What a pleasure! ) and hence the city became known as Kheyvakh , whence Khiva . In Hindi , Hey vah is equivalent to What a pleasure . Russian language used in the region for quite long , has no equivalence of h and its closest alternative is kh . This transforms Hey vah into Khey vakh . A third proposal is that the name comes from the word Khwarezm , altered by borrowing into Turkic as Khivarezem , then shortened to Khiva . History . In the early part of its history , the inhabitants of the area came from Iranian stock and spoke an Eastern Iranian language called Khwarezmian . Turks replaced the Iranian ruling-class in the 10th century A.D. , and the region gradually turned into an area with a majority of Turkic speakers . Russia joined Khiva Khanate in the 19th century . The last Khan was liquidated from the ruling dynasty in 1919 a century later . Thus the new Soviet Peoples Republic of Khorezm became capital . Khorezm oasis was converted into a modern part of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan in 1924 . The earliest records of the city of Khiva appear in Muslim travel accounts from the 10th century , although archaeological evidence indicates habitation in the 6th century . By the early 17th century , Khiva had become the capital of the Khanate of Khiva , ruled by a branch of the Astrakhans , a Genghisid dynasty . In the 17th century Khiva began to develop as a slave market . During the first half of the 19th century , around one million Persians and an unknown number of Russians , were enslaved there before being sold . A large part of them were involved in the construction of buildings in the walled Ichan-Kala . Campaigns . In the course of the Russian conquest of Central Asia , in 1873 the Russian General Konstantin von Kaufman launched an attack on the city of Khiva , which fell on 28 May 1873 . Although the Russian Empire now controlled the Khanate , it allowed Khiva to remain as a nominally quasi-independent protectorate . Following the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917 , a short-lived ( 1920-1925 ) Khorezm Peoples Soviet Republic formed out of the territory of the old Khanate of Khiva before its incorporation into the USSR in 1925 . The city of Khiva became part of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic . Sights . Khiva is split into two parts . The outer town , called Dichan Kala , was formerly protected by a wall with 11 gates . The inner town , or Itchan Kala , is encircled by brick walls , whose foundations are believed to have been laid in the 10th century . Present-day crenellated walls date back to the late 17th century and attain the height of 10 meters . Kalta Minor , the large blue tower in the central city square , was supposed to be a minaret , but the Khan died and the succeeding Khan did not complete it . The old town retains more than 50 historic monuments and 250 old houses , mostly dating from the 18th or the 19th centuries . Djuma Mosque , for instance , was established in the 10th century and rebuilt in 1788–89 , although its celebrated hypostyle hall still retains 112 columns taken from ancient structures . Sister Cities . The following list is Khivas sister and twinned cities : - Nishapur , Iran - Yazd , Iran ( 2020 ) - San Lorenzo del Escorial , Spain ( 2019 )