Khiva, flanked by deserts, surrounded by marauding Turkoman bandits and ruled by despotic and xenophobic Khans was historically a place that few foreigners ventured into and even fewer returned alive. The most notorious foreigners, Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan, came to Khorezm at the head of huge armies. They were too busy conquering and pillaging to leave accounts of their exploits. But from later visiting foreigners there are written accounts left by an eclectic mix of merchants, doctors, ambassadors, spies, dervishes, captains, priests and even a professional cyclist.
Here are a selection of traveller's tales from Khiva's past.

As well as travel autobiographies, there are a few travel anthologies that include Khiva. These include:
Wilfred Blunt 'The Road to Samarkand' 1973
Peter Hopkirk 'The Great Game' 1990
Gerald de Daury and H.V.F Winstone (ed.) 'The Road to Kabul' 1981
Kathleen Hopkirk 'Central Asia, a Traveller's Companion' 1993