After the Drum Tower, we walked a few blocks to a mosque. The Great Mosque of Xian is a tranquil and historic mosque that has served Xi'an's Muslim community for more than a millennium. The largest and best preserved of the ancient mosques of China, its buildings are a fascinating fusion of Chinese and Arabian styles. The mosque of Xian is laid out like a traditional Chinese temple, with successive courtyards of pavilions and pagodas. But the buildings' Islamic function becomes clear on closer inspection, with the usual figurative decoration mostly replaced by Arabic and Chinese calligraphy. The complex is aligned on an east-west axis, facing Mecca.
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