Nurullaboy Palace: Khiva's European Experiment
Nurullaboy Palace in Khiva: Isfandiyar Khan's Russian-influenced reception hall, the tiled throne room, the separate ticket and whether it's worth the walk.
Parquet floors. Cast-iron stoves shipped from St Petersburg. Crystal chandeliers, painted ceilings in a style you would recognise from a provincial Russian mansion, and gold-framed mirrors — in a desert khanate that a generation earlier had been raiding caravans for slaves. Nurullaboy Palace is the strangest building in Khiva precisely because so little of it looks like Khiva, and the reason it exists says more about the last years of the khanate than any of the monuments inside the walls.
It also sits outside those walls, needs its own ticket, and is skipped by most visitors on a tight schedule. Whether that is a mistake depends entirely on what interests you.
Who built it and why
The complex went up in the first years of the twentieth century for Muhammad Rahim Khan II and was completed for his son, Isfandiyar Jurji Bahadur, who ruled Khiva from 1910 until he was killed in 1918. The name comes from Nurullaboy, the landowner whose garden the site had been.
By this point Khiva was a Russian protectorate in all but name, and the khan was doing what protected rulers across the empire were doing: building to be legible to St Petersburg. The reception hall in particular was designed to receive Russian officials in rooms they would recognise. Accounts of the construction say the chief vizier travelled to Moscow to consult architects, and that a team under a Russian engineer — usually named as A. M. Roop — came to Khiva to oversee the reception hall along with the city’s new post office and hospital. Sources vary on the exact dates, generally placing the work somewhere between about 1906 and 1912.
So this isn’t a palace in the sense that Tosh Hovli is. It is a diplomatic instrument with furniture.
What you actually see
The reception hall is the main event, and it runs to seven rooms in sequence: a waiting room, a reception hall, the throne room, a banqueting hall and three smaller private rooms.
The throne room is the one people photograph. Blue-and-white Khorezm tilework runs up the walls in the local tradition, and then the ceiling and fittings go entirely European — painted panels, a chandelier, a parquet floor laid in a geometric pattern. The collision is the point. Nobody was trying to blend the two; they sit side by side, deliberately, so that whoever you were you saw something familiar.
Elsewhere in the grounds are the khan’s residential courtyards, in the older Khivan style with carved wooden columns, and a school building. Part of the complex now holds museum displays on the history of Khorezm and on the last khans. Labelling is mostly Uzbek and Russian with limited English.
Our honest read: the reception hall is worth forty minutes and the rest is worth twenty. It is a smaller, quieter, less polished experience than anything inside Ichan Qala, and that is a large part of its appeal — you will often have a room to yourself.
The ticket, and the catch
Nurullaboy is not covered by the Ichan Qala combined ticket. It charges separately, around 120,000 som per person, bought at the palace entrance (last checked: September 2026).
That is a real amount of money next to the walled city’s own ticket, and it is the single reason most people skip it. If you are counting, it is worth knowing that Nurullaboy was included in the combined ticket in earlier years and was moved out — which is why older guidebooks and blog posts will tell you it is covered. It isn’t. The full picture on what the main ticket does and doesn’t include is in our guide to the Khiva ticket.
Opening hours run roughly 9am to 5 or 6pm depending on season, with the last entry some time before closing. Some visitors report the reception hall being locked and needing a caretaker to open it; if you find it shut, ask at the gate rather than assuming it is closed for the day.
Getting there
It is about a 10–15 minute walk northwest from the North Gate of Ichan Qala, along an ordinary street with traffic on it. That walk is itself mildly useful, because it is one of the few times you see Khiva functioning as a normal small town rather than a preserved one.
A taxi from inside the walls is a couple of dollars and takes five minutes. There is no reason to take one unless it is 42°C, in which case there is every reason.
Should you go?
Go if: you are in Khiva for two nights or more, you are interested in the Russian protectorate period, or you have already done the walled city and want something different. The late-khanate story is genuinely interesting and barely told elsewhere in the city — our history of the khanate covers how it ended.
Skip it if: you are on a day trip, you have four hours, or your interest is medieval Islamic architecture. On a short visit the money is better spent on the minaret climb; the Khiva city guide sets out what to prioritise when time is the constraint.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Nurullaboy Palace included in the Khiva combined ticket?
No. It charges its own entry of around 120,000 som at the palace gate, paid separately from the Ichan Qala ticket (last checked: September 2026). Older guidebooks say otherwise because it was included in earlier years and was later removed. Bring cash; card acceptance at the palace is unreliable.
How long do you need at Nurullaboy Palace?
About an hour covers it comfortably: forty minutes for the seven-room reception hall, twenty for the courtyards and museum displays. Photographers will want longer in the throne room. If the reception hall is locked when you arrive, ask staff at the entrance to open it rather than leaving.
Is it walkable from Ichan Qala?
Yes, 10–15 minutes northwest from the North Gate on a normal street with pavements. It is an easy walk in spring and autumn and an unpleasant one in July, when a five-minute taxi for a couple of dollars is the sensible choice. There is no shade for most of the route.
Who was Isfandiyar Khan?
The second-to-last khan of Khiva, ruling from 1910 to 1918 under Russian protection. He commissioned the European-styled reception hall to receive imperial officials. He was killed in 1918, and the khanate was abolished shortly afterwards, replaced by the Khorezm People’s Soviet Republic in 1920.
Can you photograph inside the palace?
Generally yes, and the throne room is the reason to. Flash is discouraged around the painted ceilings. A small camera fee has been charged at some Khorezm museums in the past, so check the receipt when you pay. Tripods are usually not permitted in the reception hall.
Sources: uzbekistan.travel on Nurullabay Palace for the reception-hall layout and construction account; VisitSilkRoad for background on Isfandiyar Khan. Construction dates differ between sources — we have given the range rather than picking one.
Featured image: Davide Mauro (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons.