Outside the south gate, then within the walls
Nanguan Mosque takes its name from the south gate of Yinchuan. From the late Ming or the early Qing the mosque stood outside that gate. In 1915 it moved into the city. In 1953 it was expanded into a Chinese timber complex whose hall was counted at 63 bays, one of seven mosques then standing in the urban area. The ground is Nanhuandong Road at Nanguan. During the Cultural Revolution the timber complex was destroyed. In 1981 the congregation rebuilt on the site, this time in an Arabic manner of domes. A Chinese timber hall with its many bays gave way to a domed hall raised after the loss. Both belong to the south-gate ground. Friday prayer and the festivals of the community gather at the rebuilt hall, on the same plot where the 63-bay timber hall had stood.
The hall measured in 2012
In 2012, when Xinhua Ningxia and the Institute of World Religions published their survey of the rebuilt hall, the site covered a little over 3 mu, with 2,074 square metres of floor area. Those figures belong to the 2012 survey. The prayer hall stood upstairs, a square 21 metres on each side. One large green dome rose at the centre, 9.5 metres high, and the crescent on it stood 22 metres above the ground. Four smaller green domes marked the corners. Twenty-four drum windows opened the walls. Two square minarets had been added in front. Inside, a white-marble niche was carved with text from the Qur'an. The congregation gathered there for Friday prayer and for festivals. Upstairs the survey places the square hall, the green domes, the drum windows, the pair of minarets and the marble niche.
Timber bays, then a green dome
The two buildings are the story of this congregation's ground. The 1953 work was a Chinese timber hall of 63 bays. The 1981 work was the domed hall, with its crescent at 22 metres and its niche cut in white marble. One community moved from a site outside the south gate, through the move of 1915, the timber expansion, the destruction, and the rebuilding. The 2012 survey fixed the green dome's dimensions while the timber hall was already gone; the survey records the hall as it stood then. On one south-gate plot the language of the buildings changed completely: timber bays lost, a domed prayer hall standing in their place.