page_title: Great Mosque of Xi'an
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Great Mosque of Xi'an / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: The ceiling of a pavilion of the Great Mosque of Xi'an — in Xi'an, PRC.
context_page_description: The Great Mosque of Xi'an is the largest mosque in China. It was first built in the year 742 AD. An active place of worship within Xi'an Muslim Quarter, this courtyard complex is also a popular tourist site. The majority of the mosque was built during the early Ming dynasty. It now houses more than twenty buildings in its five courtyards, and covers 12,000 square metres.
context_section_description: The mosque is a walled complex of five courtyards, with the prayer hall located in the fourth courtyard. Each courtyard contains a central monument, such as a gate, and is lined with greenery as well as subsidiary buildings. The first courtyard, for instance, contains a Qing dynasty monumental gate, while the fourth courtyard houses the Phoenix Pavilion, a hexagonal gazebo. Many walls throughout the complex are filled with inscriptions of birds, plants, objects, and text, both in Chinese and Arabic. Stone steles record repairs to the mosque and feature calligraphic works. In the second courtyard, two steles feature scripts of the calligrapher Mi Fu of the Song dynasty and Dong Qichang, a calligrapher of the Ming dynasty.
  The Xingxin Tower is located in the third courtyard, which contains many steles form ancient times. This courtyard is for visitors to attend prayer services. The fourth courtyard has a bigger prayer hall which can seat more than a thousand people. 
  Overall, the mosque's architecture, like the majority of Hui Chinese mosques, combines a traditional Chinese architectural form with Islamic functionality. For example, whereas traditional Chinese buildings align along a north–south axis in accordance with feng shui, the mosque is directed west towards Mecca, while still conforming to the axes of the imperial city. Furthermore, calligraphy in both Chinese and Arabic writing appears throughout the complex, sometimes exhibiting a fusion of styles called Sini, referring to Arabic text written in Chinese-influenced script. Some scholars also speculate that the three-story, octagonal pagoda in the third courtyard, called the Shengxinlou or “Examining the Heart Tower,” originally served as the mosque's minaret, used for the call to prayer.
  The prayer hall is a monumentally sized timber building with a turquoise hip roof, painted dougong (wooden brackets), a six-pillared portico, and five doors. It is raised upon a large stone platform lined with balustrades. The expansive prayer hall consists of three conjoined buildings, set one behind the other. Interior ornamentation is centered on the rear qibla wall, which has wooden carvings of floral and calligraphic designs.
caption: Inside the Phoenix Pavilion
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