If you want to spend a weekend in Khiva away from the busiest tourist routes, it's worth stopping by the Said Alauddin Mausoleum — a compact 14th-century Sufi sheikh's tomb, the only surviving Mongol-era building inside Ichan Kala. Its blue tiled dome is noticeably more modest than later monuments, but that very simplicity gives the place a particular quiet. A few steps away is the 19th-century Ok Mosque (White Mosque) — a small neighborhood mosque with painted wooden columns that was never built with tourists in mind and is still used by local residents for its original purpose. Both places rarely make it onto standard routes, so it's easy to spend a calm half hour here without the queues and crowds usual at the city's main monuments.
