Wooden Roofed & Columned Mosques in Anatolia For over 10,000 years, wood has played a crucial role in Anatolian architecture. When the Seljuks arrived in Anatolia in the late 11th century, they began constructing mosques featuring wooden columns and roofs reminiscent of those found in Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva. Several wooden column capitals and mosques with wooden roofs dating back to the 10th and 11th centuries are preserved in the museums of Samarkand and Tashkent. In Anatolian-Turkish architectural tradition, mosques with wooden roofs and columns from the 13th century represent a unique building style. Their architectural forms draw inspiration from Middle Asia’s tabular tent designs and the characteristics of 11th-12th century wooden columned mosques in Turkistan. Examples of wooden roofed and columned mosques from the Anatolian Seljuk and Beyliks periods can be found in cities such as Konya, Ankara, and Kastamonu. Such mosques continued to be constructed up until the early 20th century in remote regions far from the Ottoman Empire’s capital. Below, you will find some of the finest examples of these remarkable mosques: