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The Id Gah Mesjid is located in Kashgar, within the autonomous
region of Xinjiang, China. This region holds 7 minority nationalities, the Uygur, the Kazak, the Hui, the
Kirgiz, the Tajik,
the Uzbek and the Tatar, who are all Muslim.
Xinjiang was renamed by the Chinese
upon the arrival of the Chinese People's Liberation Army in 1949 and is
still known by the
local resident population as Eastern Turkestan.
Building Started Around 80 AH
The building of the Mesjid is claimed to date back prior to 700 AD,
or around 80 AH. In 1422 AD, Shakesimirzha, the  then ruler of Kashgar, completed
the building of the Mesjid and had it extended. It has since been
renovated time and time again, through to it's present size and shape.
The Mesjid, 140 meters long from south to north and 120 meters from east to
west, covers an area of 16,800 square meters and consists of the Hall of Prayer,
the Teaching Hall, the gate tower and outdoor pottery and Wudhu
facilities. This
area can hold up to 6000 people at any time. The gate of the mosque, built of
yellow bricks, supports two 18m high minarets which are used everyday to call
the Adhan.
The
main area within the Mesjid is a courtyard with a lovely garden, trees and a
pond. The main hall with wide eaves is 160 meters long and 16 meters wide. The
hall's ceiling, with fine wooden carvings, is supported by one hundred carved
wooden columns. The direction to the Holy Kaba'a from Id Gah Mesjid is
approximately West.
Within the grounds of the Mesjid, 72 Uyghur people are buried
under a tomb known to Eastern Turkestanis as the Tomb of Appak Hoja, but renamed
by the Chinese to Xiang Fei's Tomb.
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