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which promoted Persian instead. Important chroniclers such as Munis and
Agahi also served as a statement, some Khans like Abu al-Gazi Bahadir
and his son Anush wrote about Turkic history and the khanate themselves.
So, Khorezm was the castle of Turkish language and literature from the
Mongol invasion until the 20th century (Munîs and Agahî, 1999).
TOURIST ATTRACTIONS IN KHIVA
The most important feature of Khiva, which is recognized as a “museum
city” since 1967 and has been under UNESCO protection since 1990, is
its architectural integrity reflecting the past despite the fact that most of
the monuments are inherited from the 19th century. Most monuments are
of adobe-based architectural heritage and Islamic civilization monuments
like mosques, minarets, madrassahh, and caravanserais are present. The
high walls encircling “shahristan” (the inner city), palaces, narrow streets,
houses with a single wooden column in front of their eiwans and fantastic
wooden doors are also characteristics of Khiva.. Unlike Samarkand and
Bukhara, where modern life surrounds historical buildings, Khiva pres-
ents a film studio atmosphere that takes the tourists back to the Khiva
Khanate period. Unfortunately, due to human factors (i.e. historical monu-
ments used for different functions) and natural factors like water level,
earthquakes, material aging, these world heritage architectural sites have
been degrading . Currently, the Khorezm Ma'mun Academy, established
by Islam Karimov with the same name as the historic sciences academy of
the 10th century, does research on how to conserve historical monuments
in Khorezm.
The most important elements of Khiva's local architecture are the tech-
niques used on its buildings, the artistic style resulting from the synthesis
of the Islamic civilization with different cultures from the old ages and the
continuity of tradition of these two features from the Middle Ages. Dur-
ing the whole Khiva Khanate period, traditional building techniques and
architecture thrived in a country closed to the outside world. Under Soviet
ruling, religious monuments' functioning were forbidden and the city was
emptied, loosing its soul. However, local masters continued to build new
houses based on old tradition (Prochazka, 1990). Although most buildings
are only 100-years old, they include very old materials taken from old
buildings dating back to the 10th century. As an example, it is said that
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