Great Mosque of Xi'an

The Great Mosque of Xi'an (Chinese: 西安大清真寺; pinyin: Xī'ān Dà Qīngzhēnsì; Arabic: مسجد شيان), also known as the Huajue Xiang Mosque (化觉巷清真寺; Huàjué Xiàng Qīngzhēnsì) due to its location on 30 Huajue Lane, and is sometimes called the Great Eastern Mosque (东大寺; Dōng Dàsì), is a mosque located in the eastern segments of the Xi'an Muslim Quarter (回民街), Xi'an, in the Shaanxi province of China. It is one of the largest premodern mosques in China. The mosque was built in 742 CE during the Tang dynasty, at the time when Xi'an (Chang'an) was the world's largest city, its current form was largely constructed in 1392 CE during Emperor Hongwu's reign of the Ming dynasty, as recorded by the Records of Xi'an Municipality (西安府志).

The mosque's plan is distinguished by its symmetrically east-west axis plan with five sahns that include several buildings with the prayer hall being at the west end of the mosque, this plan follows the native Chinese architectural traditions and it is different from mosques outside of China. An active place of worship within the Xi'an Muslim Quarter, this sahn complex is also a popular tourist site. It now houses more than twenty buildings in its five sahns, and covers 1...