En route to Bukhara, Ibn Battuta traveled to Kath, formerly an important city in Khwarezm but one which no longer exists. Over its ruins however is a place called Bereni about which the guidebooks have nothing to say, and it took me some time to realize that Bereni is Kath - named after the famous afore-mentioned scholar al-Buruni (after a fashion) who was born there. I did not visit because I was working and it was not part of the itinerary. It will have to wait for another time. We did however visit Khiva - capital of the notorious Khanate of slave traders, thieves and brigands. Ibn Battuta did not visit because in the 14th century the town was of little importance - it came into its own as a den of iniquity in the 18th century. Nowadays its newly-restored cobbled streets ring out to the cries of vendors and tourists and not to the shrieking of unfortunates being thrown off the top of a minaret.
The heavily restored mud brick walls of Khiva Old Town, the Ichon-Kala.
