Mosque of Nanquan

As early as 30 thousand years ago, there were traces of human beings in Ningxia. Located on the 'Silk Road,' Ningxia was an important traffic path connecting the east and west in ancient times. Because of its important Yellow River (Huanghe) location, Ningxia also has a long history with Huanghe culture. The Ningxia Autonomous Region of the Hui Nationality was formally founded in October of 1958. It is China's largest region home to people of Hui descent. Here they live in compact communities and number one third of the area's total population.

As most Huis practice the Muslim religion, they have unique ways of living. Many mosques are scattered throughout the city, and the Nanguan Mosque is a good example. It is a Modern Middle Eastern-style structure with Islamic arches and domed roofs covered in green tiles.
Mosque of Nanquan is located in Jiefang Road, Yinchuan City. To its north is the Red Water River. Mosque of Nanguan is the place for Muslim masses organization and worshipping activities in Linxia.

The Big Mosque of Ningxia is a combination of the Arabic style and the national characteristics construction. It was built in the last year of Yuan dynasty. The total area occupied is 2,180 square meters. The Sunday hall sits west and face east. It is a combination of winding in the front and straight in the back in structure.

It was reconstructed in 1981 and was located on the southeast corner of Yinchuan City. It was the centre where Hui tribe populace carried out religious activities in Yinchuan. During the Djumah Date or Hui tribe tradition holiday every year, hundreds and thousands of Muslim religion will converge here to go on pilgrimage week.

The surrounding hall is magnificent and solemn and built by 30 pieces of big round root decorated with cement relief, where the wall looks very elegant and unique. There are three green peak towers with the roof of round vaults on the roof of the front of the palace, named as “munanai” and “Wangyue Building”, with an altitude of 22 meters. The round vaults were decorated with blessing bottles and colorful moon.The middle munaina were scripted with varied bibles in ancient language where it is a good place for studying and reciting the bible. With an integration of the Chinese traditional architecture arts and the style of Arabic, it is the core of the combination of sino-west culture.

The Big East Close Islamic temple main shrine construction’s height is 26 meters. It sits west and face east and the temple area covers approximately 10,000 square meters. The main shrine is circular in shape with two arches. The upper formation is the main hall; balcony and the big square shape hall can accommodate more than 1,300 people for praying. The lower level comprised of spacious bathroom, little praying palace, female praying palace, Arabic school, and the akhoond bedroom, and office and reception room and so on.

They are all connected by a winding corridor. There is a big arch decoration composed by four smaller green arches in the center of the tower roof. The bigger one resides in the central committee with a diameter of 9 meters. The peak was hung with crescent moon where the small ones has diameter of 3 meters, distributed in all four corners of the roof.