The Khorezm capital destroyed twice over, and what is left of it in the north.
In the north of Turkmenistan, in Dashoguz province close to the Uzbek border, stands Kunya-Urgench — «Old Urgench». In the Middle Ages it was the capital of Khorezm and one of the principal cities of the Islamic world. It was destroyed twice: by the Mongols in the thirteenth century and by Timur at the end of the fourteenth. After the second time it was not rebuilt on the same spot, which is exactly why there is something to see — no new town settled on top of the old one. UNESCO inscribed it in 2005.
The most conspicuous thing is the Kutlug Timur minaret, some sixty metres high. It is the tallest ancient minaret in Central Asia, and it stands alone in a field without the mosque it once belonged to; the scale only registers close up.
Beside it is the mausoleum of Turabek Khanum — the building the people who know come for. Mosaic survives under the dome, and when you look into it properly you realise it is not ornament in general but very exact geometry. A little apart stands the mausoleum of Il-Arslan, small, with an unusual conical roof.
**Kunya-Urgench is a working place of pilgrimage**, not only a monument. Turkmen come here with their own traditions and observances, and at weekends it can be busy. That is worth keeping in mind: you are not in a museum, and behaving sensibly is not only courtesy but the condition of being welcome.
Logistics: from Ashgabat this is a long day's drive across the desert, so Kunya-Urgench is normally built into a route together with Dashoguz and the crossing into Uzbekistan rather than made a trip out and back.