POLVON OTA Hotel

Twenty-four hours a day the call to prayer drifts from Islam Khoja minaret, Uzbekistan's tallest, directly over POLVON OTA Hotel on Islom Hodja street inside Khiva's walled inner city, Ichan Kala.

The address places guests steps from the minaret's base and within the mud-brick lanes of a UNESCO-listed medieval core that few Silk Road towns preserve this intact. Evening light on the tilework reads differently here than anywhere on the Uzbek circuit.

Khiva's old city closes its gates to vehicles at night, keeping the streets near the hotel quiet after tourist day-groups depart. The rail connection at Urgench, 35 km west, links to Tashkent overnight.