The Tongxin Great Mosque is one of the oldest mosques in China. It is located in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in Northwest China. Ningxia is the largest residential place of the Hui ethnic minority group in China. There are more that 2,000 mosques with Arabic and traditional Chinese architectural styles. The Tongxin Great Mosque is one of them.
The Tongxin Great Mosque, located in Tongxin County, is the most famous mosque in the southern mountainous area in Ningxia. Many famous Moslem scholars used to study and lecture there. The mosque was established around the 14thcentury at the end of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). All the buildings are built on a cyan platform of seven meters high. In front of the gate there is an imitated-timberwork entrance wall decorated with brick carvings. Visitors can climb to the pedestal of several meters high via an arch and a hidden passageway. On the pedestal, the first building you see is a two-storeyed minbar. Passing through the door beside the minaret, visitors can enter the courtyard that is composed of the main worship hall and the southern and northern sermon halls. The main worship hall consists of two connected halls, and can seat more than 1,000 worshipers.
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