Western Gate (Ata Darvaza)

Khiva, a city that is almost entirely an architectural monument erected in the XVIII – XIX centuries. The biggest attraction of the city is Shahristan (from the ancient name of the cities located inside the fortress walls), which has been preserved almost untouched in the city walls of Ichan Kala (inner city).

The emergence of the city is shrouded in many legends. According to one of the legends, the name of one of the wells of the city became the basis of the very name of the city of Khiva. So, according to legends, tired merchants who followed caravans stopped at the well to drink water. The water in the well was so clean, cool and refreshing that travelers exclaimed: “Hey wah!”, which is an admiring cry in the East. Later, this cry changed a little and spread to the whole city. Hence the meaning and the name of the city – Khiva, which in its initial meaning conveys: “Oh, how wonderful it is!”.

Another legend about the name and origin of the city is associated with the son of the biblical hero Noah – Sim. According to legend, when Noah's ark landed, it was abandoned by Sim, who wandered for a long time in the desert, and then fell asleep from exhaustion. In his dream, he saw about 300 burning torches, which were stacked in the shape of a boat and illuminated everything around. Waking up, Sim saw a sign in this dream and began to rebuild the city in the form of a boat, which he saw in a dream. And so the ancient city arose.

Ichan Kala bounding the inner city, which received the status of a city-reserve, was built of special adobe. The outer fortress of the city, Dishan Kala, bounding the villages (rabad), was also built of this material. Adobe was the clay extracted from the Govuk Kul Lake, and then dried in the sun. According to legend, even the Prophet Muhammad, when building the Medina, took clay from this place, where a lake was later formed.

The length of the fortress walls of Ichan Kala is more than 6 thousand meters, the height is about 10 meters, and the thickness reaches 6 meters. Every 30 meters, round defensive towers were located in the wall, which were bounded from above by jagged railings with embrasures. A moat with water was dug around the walls.

A gate led to the city through Ichan Kala:

Northern – Bagcha Darvaza, which translates as “Gate to the garden".

Southern – Tash Darvaza, which means “Stone Gate".

Eastern – Palvan Darvaza or “Heroic gate".

And the main, western gate is Ata Darvaza.

There are several theories of the origin of such a name of the gate “Ata Darvaza”, which means “Father's Gate". According to one of them, they are called Paternal because they were the main gate of Ichan Kala. According to another, it was at this gate that the Sher Muhammad Ata mosque was located, which was completely destroyed, however, it retained its name for the gate.

Ata Darvaza, the main gate of the city, met travelers from Bukhara and Samarkand, merchants walking along the Great Silk Road. The gate was a rather massive structure, 10 meters long and 4 meters wide, which was built during the reign of the third representative from the Kungrat dynasty, Eltuzar Khan. The gates were built of burnt bricks and reinforced beams. There were arched windows above the gate, and the wall was bounded from above by a jagged edge.

There were 4 rooms in the gate building, where the customs office was located, checking the cargo of caravaners and charging a fee for entering the city, as well as a currency exchange office.

The gate was completely destroyed in 1920, however, in the 70s of the XX century, a group of archaeologists and historians came up with a proposal to restore the gate according to the available photos and documents. After that, an exact copy of the original gate was rebuilt in 1975.