The Kalta Minor Minaret

Built in one decade exactly in the middle of the 19th century, the greatest madrasah of Muhammad Amin Khan and the equally significant minaret laid at the same time promised to become an unsurpassed architectural complex of the Islamic world. The importance of the Khanate of Khiva, its power extending to the surrounding territories, had to be displayed on a gigantic scale of structures.

Paradoxically, the completed madrasah building is inferior in importance to the unfinished minaret, due to the death of the khan in a military campaign. The name "Kalta Minor" itself translates as "short minaret". The correspondence of the minaret of the madrasah, due to its completion of less than half, is very conditional, and, nevertheless, the legends surrounding it and its unusual appearance invariably attract the attention of residents of Uzbekistan and tourists from abroad.

One of the legends says that the architect who contracted for the construction of the minaret was thrown down from a 29-meter height by order of the khan for agreeing to the proposal of the Bukhara ruler: to erect an even more significant minaret (the expected height of the Kalta Minor was planned at 80 m). After the architect was executed by the exasperated khan, there was no one willing to repeat his fate, construction was temporarily suspended at first, and then completely stopped.

The foundation of the building was buried 15 meters deep, which corresponded to the grandiose plans for the construction of an eighty-meter colossus. The width at the base at ground level reaches 14.2 meters. The diameter of the tower gradually tapered from level to level. The incompleteness of the construction, the fact that the minaret has not acquired the planned grandiose forms, leaves the impression of a clever idea by a modern designer. This landmark of ancient Khiva stands out among others for its unusual appearance, despite the fact that the tower's decoration is quite traditional. Blue-white-blue glazed patterned tiles with stripes of equal width encircle the minaret tower. In the upper part, the stripe ornament is an Arabic script. The entire decoration was fixed on the minaret around the middle of the 19th century, at a time when its eternal incompleteness became obvious to the rulers of Khiva. The exterior decorations are designed to harmonize the dimensions of the building and create an impression of the integrity of the architectural ensemble. In all of Central Asia, there is not a single ancient building equal to the Kalta Minor in its original design and equally striking, non-standard completion.

There is currently a hotel, an exchange office, a travel agency, an airline ticket office, and a cozy cafe inside the madrasah. Nowadays, no one is looking for a practical application for the majestic but still unfinished minaret. Kalta Minor remains a remarkable reminder of the ancient history of the original Khiva, the era of the rise of the khanate, the great ambitions of its ruler and the imminent collapse of such lofty plans.