’Id Kah’ means ’a place of praying and celebrating festivals’. The Id Kah Mosque found on the central square in Kashgar City, Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region is the biggest mosque in China. It is made up of a group of old Islamic buildings with strong ethnic style and religious features. The present Id Kah Mosque was built in 1442 as a very small structure, on an area said to have once been a cemetery. Several renovations and enlargements over the years have brought it up to today’s scale and style. The whole complex occupies 16,800 sq m (about 4 acres) and consists of the courtyard, the Hall of Prayer, and the gate tower and as well as several attached structures. Poplar and pine trees, providing a wide shaded cool area on hot days, populate the courtyard. A courtyard pond gives the mosque a quiet elegance.
Every day thousands of worshippers come here to pray and each Friday afternoon, Muslims living far and near gather to worship often spilling into the surrounding square and surrounding streets. During religious festivals all the Muslims in Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region celebrate at the mosque. Prayers are usually followed by dancing in the square.
Name:Kashgar Id Kah Mosque (Aitigaer Qingzhensi)
City:Kashgar
Address:
Admission:CNY15