Quite the unique mosque

After heading back from the Terra Cotta Warriors, Rick and I went to visit Xi’an’s great mosque. Not surprisingly it was located within the cramped streets of the Muslim quarter. It took a bit of doing to find, navigating this area reminds me some of Quest for Glory II, large spaces can be hidden within small streets.

Regardless, the mosque itself is quite impressive with elegant gardens. If memory serves the mosque had five sperate courtyards, all in a row, with the main worship area at the far end from the main entrance. There was a worship service ongoing when I visited and side rooms were curtained off while the sound of prayers reverberated from loudspeakers. Overall it was more what I think of as a temple aestetic. A pagoda served as a minaret and so forth. That said, there were the occasional bits of Arabic, more common as I got deeper in, as well as depictions of Mecca and the like.

My timing was good and I arrived at the largest square near the main worship area as the prayers turned into a speech of some sort followed by fairly overpowering chanting. I didn’t get too close to the enclosed worship area since there were signs requesting that visitors not do so. Regardless, the site was definitely well worth the visit. By being a bit more ascetic it kept the beauty of Chinese temple design while toning things down a bit. I rather like the balance. The churches I noticed looked a bit more like western churches. Probably because Islam arrived comparatively early via the Silk Road and I don’t think Christianity made inroads until later.