Marvellous minarets

One of the minarets we climbed in Khiva. They are hard to climb, involving a pitch-black, all-fours ascent up a spiral staircase. But despite this, young Kihvan couples choose to congregate on the stairs for romantic trysts. Is is that hard to get any privacy here?!

Views at the top are great and no other tourists to share it with (largely because most Uzbekistan visitors are 70+ and there's no way on this Earth they could handle the stairs).