Discover Xinjiang
Id Kah Mosque
艾提尕尔清真寺
China's largest mosque and the religious heart of Kashgar, founded in the 1440s and fronting the city's main square. The yellow-tiled gatehouse and the long poplar-shaded prayer courtyard are the standard image of Kashgar; it is the one paid site in the old city.
The story
What makes this place special
Id Kah is the largest mosque in China. It was built in 1442 by Saqsiz Mirza to commemorate his ancestors, incorporating earlier structures on the site; the yellow-brick building dates from 1798 and was enlarged in 1838. The complex covers about 16,800 square metres, roughly 120m by 140m, and can hold up to 20,000 worshippers in the prayer hall and courtyards together. Its architecture combines Central and West Asian forms with some Chinese influence: a yellow-brick gate tower flanked by two 18m minarets, topped with a crescent. It was renovated in 1981 and the facade was tiled in 2004-2005. Its imam, Jume Tahir, was stabbed to death outside the mosque after morning prayers on 30 July 2014, and his successor was jailed in 2017. It now operates mainly as a visitor site: it has been largely closed to regular worship since 2016, with elderly worshippers admitted on selected holy days, and visitor access as of 2026 is reported as two hours in the morning and two in the afternoon.
What you’ll discover
A broad yellow-brick gate front with twin minarets facing the main square of Kashgar, and behind it a large courtyard of poplars and plane trees with a pool, flanked by long colonnades. The prayer hall runs along the far side: a forest of slender painted wooden columns under a flat timber ceiling, open on one side to the courtyard, with carved and painted capitals. The scale is in the plan rather than in height, and the spaces are mostly empty.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- Visiting hours are narrow and split across the day, and they have changed repeatedly. Check on the morning and plan around the window rather than assuming you can drop in.
- Dress conservatively, with covered shoulders and legs, and take your shoes off where indicated. Walk round the colonnade rather than across the prayer hall.
- Look at the ceiling and the column capitals in the prayer hall. The painted woodwork is the real craftsmanship of the building, and the facade that everyone photographs was tiled in 2004-2005.
- The square in front is the busiest public space in Kashgar and is screened. Expect bag and ID checks going in, and do not photograph the security positions around its edges.
- The best view of the gate front is from the first-floor tea houses and restaurants across the square, in the late afternoon when the light is on the brick.
- Friday remains the significant day in the week for the quarter around the mosque even though regular worship inside is restricted, and the streets nearby are at their fullest then.
When to come
Late afternoon, when the light is on the gate facade and the courtyard trees give shade, within whichever visiting window is operating. April to June and September to October for tolerable temperatures.
Getting around
Good. The gate is entered from the square at near ground level with a shallow threshold, and the courtyard is flat paving and packed earth, so a wheelchair can go round it. The prayer hall platform is raised by a low step. The minarets cannot be climbed. A bad knee has no obstacle here.
Worth knowing before you go
Cover shoulders and knees - shorts are explicitly discouraged - and do not photograph worshippers. Photographing the police posts on the square is a bad idea.
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