Survey map
of the Khanate of Khiva. Recorded by Major Herbert Wood during his travels in Central
Asia, and based on contemporary Russian sources.

This map depicts the region of
Khwarazm, encompassing parts of present-day Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and
extending from the Aral Sea in the north to the Karalkum (Kharesmian) Desert in
the south, and from the Ustyurt Plateau (Ust-Urt) in the west to the Kyzylkum
Desert (Kizzil Koom) in the east.

In the late 19th century, this territory formed
the Khanate of Khiva, a state centred on the Khwarezm oasis along the Amu Darya
River, with its capital at Khiva. Emerging as an independent polity in the
early 16th century following the collapse of the Timurid Empire, the
Khanate was ruled by successive Uzbek dynasties and occupied a strategically
significant position between Persia, Russia, and other Central Asian powers. By
the time of the map’s publication, Khiva had lost its independence and, in
1873, had become a Russian protectorate, serving as a buffer state between the
Russian Empire and Great Britain during the period of imperial rivalry known as
the Great Game.

The map derives from surveys conducted by Major Herbert
Wood, a British Army officer and geographer noted for his service during the
Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the Abyssinian Campaign. In the early 1870s, Wood
joined an expedition organized by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society to
explore Central Asia, undertaking significant hydrological studies of the Amu
Darya basin at a time when the region remained poorly charted by both Russian
and British authorities. His findings were later published in The Shores of
Lake Aral (1876).

Primarily hydrological in focus, the map records river
courses and tributaries in exceptional detail, along with dry lake beds,
existing lakes, and other major bodies of water, shown in colour. Prominent
settlements and sites, including Kunya-Urgench and Khiva, are identified. As
with comparable survey maps, detail is largely confined to Wood’s route of
travel, with extensive areas left blank. The map includes a scale in English
miles, and figures indicating elevations above both Aral Sea level and mean sea
level.