Fortress · Urganch District

Ulli Hovli Complex

A mud-walled “big courtyard” near Urgench — a 17th-century multi-family fortified compound built at the request of Turkmen elders. Restored in 2013–2015, it is now an ethnographic tourist site.

KhanatesXVII45 min1 min read

Photo: Iaa2023 · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Then and now

Ulli hovli means “big courtyard”. Uzbek and Turkmen builders raised the complex in the 17th century; according to the inscription at its gate, Abulgozi Bahodir Khan built it at the request of the Turkmen elders Khojamberdi and Shermamatboy. Its inner and outer walls are of rammed clay, local earth and timber around a roughly trapezoidal yard. Originally a building of about a hundred rooms housing several families, it retains 35 dwellings today. Restoration in 2013–2015 turned it into a visitor attraction with camels and horses, an old mill and an ancient well.