“The desert surrounding the Khorezm oasis is a strange desert. Between heavy ridges of sand, among the crests of dune chains, atop the barren variegated cliffs — the spurs of the Sultan Uizdag, along the escarpments of the Ustyurt plateau, across the flat pinkish surfaces of the takyr — everywhere, across hundreds of thousands of hectares, we encounter traces of human activity. These are entire dead cities, settlements, fortresses, castles, the ruins of once-inhabited regions, whose structures rise 10–12, and sometimes even 20 meters above the beds of dry canals, scattered by the wind and buried under sand — harsh walls with narrow slits of arrow-shaped loopholes, formidable towers, and round and pointed portal arches.”

— S.P. Tolstov