Id Kah Mosque
'Id Kah' means 'a place of praying and celebrating in festivals'. The Id Kah Mosque is located on the central square in Kashgar City, Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region. As the biggest mosque in China, it is a group of old Islamic constructions with strong ethnic style and religious features.
It is said that this place was once a cemetery. The present Id Kah Mosque was built in 1442 as a very small structure. Several renovations and enlargements have created it with today's scale and style.
The whole complex occupies 16,800 square meters (about 4 acres) and consists of the courtyard, the Hall of Prayer, and the gate tower and as well as some other attached structures.
Just inside the gate is a big courtyard. In it, the poplar trees reach the sky and the pines grow vigorously like boys and girls in their adolescence. The whole yard is heavily shaded, making you as cool and comfortable as if you were in an air-conditioned environment. A pond with limpid water is a bright mirror enclosed by the green trees. It endows the place with a quiet elegance.
The Hall of Prayer is on a high dais in the west end of the mosque. The roof is held by light blue pillars and all the pillars form a rectangular shape. Around the roof and the pillars are exquisite carvings and beautiful pictures. The brick gate tower faces the Id Kah Square. This tower is full of elaborate flower-pattern carvings, mainly in green.
Every day thousands of worshippers come here to pray. Every Friday afternoon, Muslims living far and near gather here to worship. During religious festivals all the Muslims in Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region come to this sacred place to celebrate. At prayer time, the mosque, the square, the streets and the roads all around are full of piously kneeling Muslims. Afterwards, all the people get together on the square in front of the Id Kah Mosque and dance to show their happiness, with no sign of exhaustion.
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