Attraction in Xian:The Great Mosque

The Great Mosque

The Great Mosque was built in 742 A.D, which is one of the ten famous tourism attractions of Xi'an and situated in the northwest of the Drum Tower. It is an ancient Chinese palatial architectural complex with platforms, pavilions and halls, over 13,000sq.m in size, out of which more than 5,000sq.m are occupied by various structures.

The Great Mosque is rectangular in shape, divided inside into four compounds. A timbered archway which is near the screen wall facing the gate in the front compound will dazzle your eyes when you visit here because it is with upturned angles and flying eaves, painted beans and engraved ridgepoles, and covered with the glazed tiles. It was built in 17th century and approx. 9 meters high. On both sides of it are three wing mansions respectively, where some ancient furniture dating back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties is set out. Passing through the Five-roomed House and entering into the second compound, you will see a stone archway with three doors and four poles stands in its centre. There are four characters carved on the tablet of the frieze of the archway. On its both sides tablets were also carved with four characters. In addition, there are the authentic calligraphic works of two famous calligraphic masters. The style of the calligraphy is very elegantly, written rapidly and powerfully, and the character fonts are very formal. They are the classic of Chinese calligraphy. Westerly about 10 meters a stele carved with a dragon erects on both the south and the north respectively. Further the west is the Chici Hall (Appointing and Granting Hall), there are seven stone steles carved with the Arabic, nastalik and Chinese characters in the hall. In the fourth compound, there is a big hall covering 1,300sq.m, it can accommodate 1,000 for worship and its ceiling bears more than 400 colorful classical Arabic-styled scriptures rilievos.

The Great Mosque is a perfectly wonderful combination of the traditional Chinese architecture and Islamic architecture and is acclaimed as the peak of perfection by the visitors. Therefore, it was listed as one of the famous Islamic cultural relics of the world.