Emin Minaret

While it looks like a fantastic place from which one might give the call to prayer expected in Muslim communities, as near as we could tell Emin Minaret (see photo on left) and the adjacent mosque (see photo below right) were not in active religious use. A neighboring vineyard appeared to have the in-use mosque, which looked to be significantly larger than the mosque we visited. Considering that the mosque adjoining Emin Minaret has an official capacity of 1000 people, the scale of the two mosques together was impressive.

The nutshell history of Emin Minaret is that the local big-wig of Turpan in 1776 managed to supress a local rebellion of aristocrats; in 1777 and 1778, locals constructed this massive minaret (72 steps in a spiral staircase lead to a chamber at the top) to commemorate the success.

A key indicator that the Emin Minaret and mosque are no longer in use was the complete absence of Uighurs at the site. All the people we saw working on the mosque grounds were Han Chinese, and therefore unlikely to be Muslims. Given how few Han Chinese lived in the area, it seemed odd that the neighborhood mosque would be run by Han.