Djuma Mosque of Khiva: The Forest of Wooden Columns
Inside Khiva's Djuma Mosque: 212 carved wooden columns, some far older than the 18th-century building, plus the minaret climb, tickets and when to visit.
Step out of Khiva's glare into the Djuma Mosque and your eyes need a minute. When they adjust, you're standing in a dim, low hall with no dome, no tiles and no central space, just rows of carved wooden columns stretching away in every direction. There are 212 of them, in 17 rows, although a few guides count 213. It feels less like a building than a clearing in a petrified forest.
It's the most unusual interior in Khiva, and one of the quietest. Most people walk through in five minutes. It rewards twenty.
A mosque built for the whole town
A juma mosque is a Friday mosque, the congregational mosque where the whole male population of a town gathered for Friday prayers. That explains the plan. Instead of a courtyard and a domed prayer hall, Khiva's builders made one vast covered space of about 55 by 46 metres, big enough to hold the entire town under a single flat roof.
There's been a Friday mosque on this site since at least the 10th century. The building you see was rebuilt at the end of the 18th century under Abdurakhman Mekhtar, a senior official of the khanate. Sources give the dates variously as 1778–1782 or 1788. The builders reused many of the columns from earlier mosques, and that's what makes this one special.
The columns: how to read them
Most of the columns date from the 18th-century rebuild or from later repairs. About 25 are older, from the 10th to 16th centuries, taken from earlier buildings, and four of them are usually dated to the 10th and 11th centuries. They're among the oldest carved wood surviving anywhere in Central Asia.
You can learn to spot the old ones in a few minutes:
- Look at the carving. The older columns have deep, dense patterns of vines and flowing script, cut all the way round. The later ones are plainer or carved only in bands.
- Look at the shape. Early columns tend to be slimmer, with a distinctive jug-shaped swelling near the base. Later ones are straighter.
- Look at the colour. Old elm has weathered to a dark grey-brown. Newer wood is paler.
- Look at the feet. Many columns stand on carved stone bases, which lift the wood off the ground and away from damp. Some bases are older than the columns now standing on them.
A few columns carry dated inscriptions. A local guide can point them out, which is one of the best reasons to hire one in Khiva for an hour.
Light, and why it matters
The hall is lit only by three light wells cut into the roof. Around each of them, a patch of sky pours light onto the floor, and greenery has been planted in the brightest spots. The effect changes through the day: in the morning the light is soft and even, while around midday strong shafts cut down between the columns.
For photographs, go in the late morning, when the light shafts are clearest. Stand in a corner and shoot along a row of columns to show the depth of the hall. Leave the flash off: it flattens the carving and annoys everyone else.
Climbing the minaret
The mosque's minaret is about 32.5 metres high, and 81 steps lead to the top. You'll see other heights quoted online, including 42 and 47 metres, but 32.5 is the figure most guides and local sources agree on. It's one of the Khiva minarets that visitors can usually climb; the other well-known one is the taller Islam Khoja minaret.
The staircase is narrow, dark, steep and uneven, with steps of very different heights, so it isn't for anyone with a fear of confined spaces or bad knees. The reward is a view straight down onto the flat roof of the mosque and across the domes and walls of Itchan Kala. There's usually a small extra fee on top of the combined ticket, paid at the door, and the minaret sometimes closes without notice.
Tickets and practical details
The Djuma Mosque stands on the main east–west street of Itchan Kala, roughly halfway between the West and East Gates. It's covered by the combined Itchan Kala ticket, which costs 250,000 som and lasts two days (last checked: July 2026). Our Khiva travel guide explains what else it includes.
Today it works mainly as a monument, so there's no strict dress code. Modest clothing is still appreciated. The floor is uneven in places, and the hall is dark when you first enter from bright sunshine. Give your eyes a moment before you walk in.
Allow 20 minutes for the hall and another 20 if you climb the minaret. In summer, it's also one of the coolest places in Khiva in the middle of the day. The thick walls and shade make a real difference when it's 40°C outside.
How it fits into a day in Khiva
Khiva is compact, and most of its major sights are within ten minutes' walk of each other. A good order for a first day:
- Early morning: the Kalta Minor and the Kunya Ark near the West Gate, before the heat and the groups.
- Late morning: the Djuma Mosque, when the light is best inside.
- Midday: lunch, and a rest in the shade.
- Afternoon: the Tosh Hovli palace and the Islam Khoja complex.
- Sunset: the bastion above the Kunya Ark, for the view over the rooftops.
If you have a second day, spend it outside the walls at the ancient Khorezm fortresses. Our guide to the Elliq Qala desert fortresses covers how to get there. Itchan Kala as a whole is on UNESCO's World Heritage list, and Uzbekistan's official tourism portal, uzbekistan.travel, lists Khiva's other monuments.
Featured image: Bgag (CC0) via Wikimedia Commons.