Toprak-kala fortress (Earth city)

The most interesting buildings of Toprak-kala were in its northern part, which occupied the third part of urban area. The north-eastern corner was for market or city square. On the north-western corner, there was a citadel, which was a strengthened per se “protected” city with an area of 3.2 hectares. In north-western corner, there was a huge royal palace, made on a brick platform with 12 meters height. This building was unmatched in Khorezm and Central Asia. Even now, a grandiose palace towers above urban territory by its strong mass. It has a lot of mysteries. The archeologists discovered the temple of fire at the bottom of platform of high palace near citadel. In central building of Toprak-kala palace there were lots of different – residential, main, utility, barn – buildings, some part of them took two floors. All these buildings were exactly divided to independent complexes with definite purpose, divided from each other by massive walls. In ruins, archeologists found more than hundred service documents, which were made by an army script in Khorezmians language. 

Many rooms of the palace were decorated with wall paintings and clay sculpture, but the most beautiful was a huge (about 280 sq. meters) central main hall –