 During the first half of the 19th century, around one million Persians and an unknown number of Russians, were enslaved there before being sold.A large part of them were involved in the construction of buildings in the walled Ichan-Kala.In the course of the Russian conquest of Central Asia, in 1873 the Russian General Konstantin von Kaufman launched an attack on the city of Khiva, which fell on 28 May 1873.