Ata Darwaza Gates

The ancient gate, built in the western part of Ichan-Kala, is cqlled by many historians as the main entrance to the city. Numerous facts show that inside of the gate there were a lot of shopping arcades, the covered bazaar and so on. From the right side the architectural complex was supplemented by Mohammed Aminkhan Madrassah built in the mid-50s of the XVIII century. Opposite the madrassah there is the palace Kuna-Ark.

 

The presence of a large trading square required the development of the economic component in the city. Already at that time beyond the gate there was a local customs office and a currency exchange, called sarrafhana.

 

The architects of that time tried to use the technology available to them to implement their building ideas. Before beginning the construction of arches of the gate major adjustment operations were carried out, which made it possible to achieve a even distribution of weight designs on arches. The use of wooden beams allowed evenly distributing the burden on the entire area of ​​the dome of the arch.

 

Also noteworthy is the interior of the complex. Gates, whose parameters were 10 meters by 4meters, had four rooms of various sizes. But all of them were destroyed in the early 20s of the last century to be fully restored by local architects half a century later.

 

The architects took care of a visual appeal of the gate as well, which received numerous decorations of regular geometric shapes and floral patterns, called “islimi.” Each flap of the gate was decorated with multiple rectangles of a regular geometric shape. Inside each of these figures there was written a 8-pointed star. Historians have established that the flaps were erected in the country palace of Mohammed Aminkhan in the middle of the XVIII century.

 

Many photographs stored in the historical foundation of the museum-reserve of Khiva in Ichan-Kala can serve as a proof of this fact. They can clearly see not only the location of the gate, but also all the features of their unique decoration.