Great Mosque Muslim Quarter, Xi'an, China

Xi'an's Great Mosque, serving a resident Hui (ethnic Han Muslim) community, is the largest Chinese-style mosque in China, located on a rectangular plot of land that is 245m long by 47m wide (800 ft by 155 ft). An earlier mosque was built here in 742, to serve the Muslim traders and diplomats who traveled to Chang'an, as the city of Xi'an was then known, along the Silk Road. The present complex was designed in the Ming era (1392), but many of its buildings belong architecturally to the Qing dynasty. They were rebuilt, and their timbers replaced, in 1990.

The complex is oriented from the east (entrance) to the west (qibla). Seen here is the rebuilt, Ming-era, three-bay gate (pailou), that leads west into the third courtyard of the complex.