This Silk Road caravanserai stands on the ancient route between Amul and Khorezm and dates to around the 12th century (give or take a couple of hundred years), just off the main road 170km to the north of Turkmenabat. To find the place, which is not signposted, turn onto the track heading riverwards a few metres south of the Halkabat checkpoint, marking the entrance to a restricted border zone. A few hundred metres along, turn right where another track crosses yours. You will see the caravansaray in front of you.Although abandoned around 500 years ago, most of the building stands intact, although in a fairly ruin ous state. Dayahattin is by far the best preserved medieval caravansaray surviving in Turkmenistan. Dating from the 11th or 12th century, it was built to service the trade route between Amul and Khorezm, and probably remained in use until the 16th century. The caravansaray is square in plan, its walls 53m long. Around a central courtyard brick arches lead into a vaulted arcade, off which run various small rooms. The main gate, whose arched roof of fired bricks is still in place, lies on the eastern wall, facing the river. The geometrical patterned decorations in which the bricks have been laid on the external east wall are particularly fine.Around the caravansaray are degraded outer defensive walls. Pack animals would have overnighted in the area enclosed by these, which now accommodates a small graveyard.Pick your way through the enormous arched gateway into a central courtyard, surrounded by a vaulted arcade and small cells. Climbing up on the walls you can make out a second earthen wall that surrounded the compound.