On the outside of the Timbuktu Mosque there are these strange spike things. What are they and what are there purpose? Is it to hang stuff on or to climb or what?
That mosque is not in Timbuktu. It is the Great Mosque of Djenne, in the city of Djenne which is about 500 km south-west of Timbuktu in Mali.
Anyhow, those are wooden timbers called toron. They are used to support scaffolding when adobe is reapplied to the exterior of the mosque, or when repairs are needed.
These toron are ubiquitous in many large mosques in West Africa, including the Sankore mosque and Djinguereber mosque, both in Timbuktu, and the Great Mosque of Mopti and even smaller mosques have begun to use them as a stylistic element.
