Juma Mosque (Khiva)

Khiva's 10th-century Friday mosque — interior held up by 213 wooden columns, the oldest dating from the 10th–14th centuries.

The Juma (Friday) Mosque is the oldest religious building still in use in Khiva, with a layout that sets it apart from every other Friday mosque in Central Asia. Founded in the 10th century and rebuilt in 1788 in its current form, the prayer hall is a single columned hypostyle space — there is no central courtyard, no domed prayer chamber, and no qibla iwan. Instead, 213 elm-wood columns support a flat roof, with a small central skylight providing the only natural illumination. About 25 of the columns date from the 10th–14th centuries, salvaged from earlier buildings; their carved capitals and shafts make the mosque effectively a museum of Central Asian woodcarving spanning 500 years. The 33-metre minaret beside the mosque, built in 1788, can be climbed (about 80 wooden steps in a tight spiral) for the most complete view of Itchan-Kala — recommended for the late-afternoon golden hour.