Fifty Fortresses in the Sand: Uzbekistan Desert Castles of Ancient Khorezm

The wind comes off the Kyzylkum before dawn, and the walls turn the colour of apricot skin. You are standing on a ridge in Khorezm, in the far west of Uzbekistan, and below you a fortress the size of a small town is dissolving back into the desert it was built from — battlements, arrow slits, a gateway still tall enough to swallow a caravan. Nobody is selling you anything. There is no ticket booth, no railing, no queue. There is only sand, silence, and two thousand years of mud brick.

This is Elliq-Qala — "the fifty fortresses" — and it is the part of Uzbekistan that German-speaking travellers, once they hear about it, refuse to leave off the itinerary.

Why the Usbekistan Rundreise Is Getting Longer

The classic Uzbekistan round trip is Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva. It is magnificent, and it is also, increasingly, not enough. Travellers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland arrive with guidebooks annotated in three colours and questions that make guides sit up: about Kushan-era architecture, about the Zoroastrian dead, about what exactly the Soviet archaeologists found out here.

The numbers show it. German arrivals in Uzbekistan rose 48.9% year on year in the first quarter of 2026, and the country welcomed more than 7.7 million foreign visitors between January and July 2026 — 22.6% more than the same period a year earlier. Germany, Austria and Switzerland are among the 90-plus nationalities who enter Uzbekistan visa-free, so the only paperwork between you and the desert is a boarding pass.

Ayaz-Kala, Toprak-Kala and the Archaeology You Can Walk Through

The fortresses of ancient Khorezm were raised in the centuries around the turn of the first millennium, when this was a wealthy irrigated kingdom on the northern arc of the Silk Road, and they were mapped in the twentieth century by the great Khorezm Archaeological-Ethnographic Expedition led by Sergey Tolstov.

Toprak-Kala was a royal residence and temple complex — you can still read the grid of a planned ancient city in the ground, and the stumps of towers that once held painted halls. Ayaz-Kala sits on a bluff with a view that goes on for forty kilometres of nothing, three fortresses of different centuries stacked around one hill. Kyzyl-Kala, the compact red fortress, has been consolidated and partly restored, so you finally understand the scale of the walls when they were new.

They are an easy day from Khiva by road, which is precisely why so few people see them: most tour groups look at the map, see desert, and drive on. That is your advantage.

A Night in a Yurt Camp Below the Walls

Stay. That is the whole secret. Near Ayaz-Kala there are yurt camps where the day ends with plov cooked over wood, a dombra played badly and then suddenly beautifully, and a sky so crowded with stars that first-time visitors go quiet. In autumn the desert cools fast after sunset — you will want a jacket, and you will not want to go inside.

Add the Aral Sea road, Nukus and the Savitsky Museum, or a camel ride at dawn, and Khorezm stops being a stop between Bukhara and Khiva and becomes the reason people come back.

Autumn Is the Window — Here Is How to Travel It

September to mid-November is the finest travel season in Uzbekistan: daytime warmth without the summer furnace, cold clear nights, markets heavy with melons, pomegranates and grapes. It is also when the desert light is at its best for photography — long, low and gold.

GoUzbekistan has operated in Bukhara since 2007 and holds tour-operator licence No. 662280 from the Committee for Tourism Development of the Republic of Uzbekistan. We build private, guided itineraries — German-speaking guides on request — with the driving, the permits, the yurt camp and the hotels handled, so your day contains nothing but the country.

Create your own custom tour and tell us how far off the classic route you want to go — or explore our tours to start from a ready-made Silk Road journey.

Plan your Uzbekistan trip — in your language

العربية

السياحة في أوزبكستان تعني أكثر من سمرقند وبخارى: في صحراء خوارزم تنتظرك قلاع طينية عمرها ألفا عام على طريق الحرير، وليلة في مخيم الخيام تحت النجوم. الخريف هو الموسم الأمثل للسفر. صمّم رحلتك الخاصة معنا.

Deutsch

Eine Usbekistan Reise muss nicht in Chiwa enden. In der Wüste von Choresm stehen die Lehmfestungen von Ayaz-Kala und Toprak-Kala — über zweitausend Jahre alt, fast menschenleer. Wir planen Ihre private Seidenstraße Rundreise mit Samarkand, Buchara und einer Nacht im Jurtencamp. Jetzt Reise individuell planen.

Español

Los viajes a Uzbekistán suelen terminar en Samarcanda — y se pierden lo mejor. En el desierto de Corasmia se alzan fortalezas de adobe de dos mil años, en plena Ruta de la Seda, y noches en campamentos de yurtas bajo las estrellas. El otoño es la mejor temporada. Descubre nuestros circuitos.

Français

Un voyage en Ouzbékistan ne se résume pas à Samarcande et Boukhara. Dans le désert du Khorezm, les forteresses de terre crue d'Ayaz-Kala veillent depuis deux mille ans sur la Route de la Soie, et l'on y dort sous les étoiles en campement de yourtes. L'automne est la saison idéale. Créez votre voyage sur mesure.

中文

乌兹别克斯坦旅游不只有撒马尔罕和布哈拉。在花剌子模的沙漠深处，两千年前的土坯古堡阿亚兹卡拉静静矗立在丝绸之路上，夜晚可以住进星空下的毡房营地。秋季是最佳旅行季节。查看我们的丝绸之路线路。

Русский

Туры в Узбекистан — это не только Самарканд и Бухара. В пустыне Хорезма стоят глинобитные крепости Аяз-Кала и Топрак-Кала, которым больше двух тысяч лет, а ночь можно провести в юртовом лагере под звёздами Шёлкового пути. Осень — лучший сезон. Составить индивидуальный тур.