The island is located on Lake Onega in the Republic of Karelia (Medvezhyegorsky District), Russia.

[2] The pogost was built on the southern part of Kizhi island, on a hill 4 meters above the Lake Onega level.

Its major basic structural unit is a round log of Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) about 30 cm in diameter and 3 to 5 meters long.

[3] The Church of the Transfiguration (Russian: Церковь Преображения Господня) is the most remarkable part of the pogost.

A legend tells that the main builder used one axe for the whole construction, which he threw into the lake upon completion with the words "there was not and will be not another one to match it".

It is considered that the 18-dome church on the southern shore of Lake Onega — built in 1708 and destroyed by fire in 1963 – was its forerunner.

[6] According to the Russian carpentry traditions of that time, the Transfiguration Church was built of wood only with no nails apart from the domes and roof shingles.

[7][8] All structures were made of scribe-fitted horizontal logs, with interlocking corner joinery — either round notch or dovetail — cut by axes.

The basis of the structure is the octahedral frame with four two-stage side attachments (Russian: прируб, "prirub" from "rubit" meaning "to cut wood").

It was first built in 1694 as a single-dome structure, then reconstructed in 1720–1749 and in 1764 rebuilt into its present 9-dome design as an architectural echo of the main Transfiguration Church.

[13] The Church of the Transfiguration is the Wonder for the Slavs in the PC game Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition.

There are wicket gates at the eastern and northern sides and a small wooden tower in the north-western corner.