Huaisheng Mosque
The Huaisheng Mosque (; also known as the Lighthouse Mosque and the Great Mosque of Canton) is the main mosque of Guangzhou. Rebuilt many times over its history, it is traditionally thought to have been originally built over 1,300 years ago, which would make it one of the oldest mosques in the world. In China, the most unusual feature of the mosque is its pointed 36 metre minaret, the Guangta or Kwangtah. Although this meant the "Plain Pagoda" in reference to its unadorned surface,<ref name=eb>{{citation |contribution=Canton |title=''Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., Vol. V |editor-last=Baynes |editor-first=Thomas Spencer |display-editors=0 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |location=New York |date=1878 |ref= |page=37 }}.</ref> it is also sometimes taken to mean "lighthouse" and gave the mosque its alternate name. Somewhat similar "minimalist" minarets can be seen outside China, e.g. at the Khan's Mosque in Kasimov, Russia. The mosque was visited by Tim Severin's crew of the Sohar, that sailed into Canton from Muscat in July 1981, recreating the fictional voyage of Sinbad the Sailor. History Old Chinese Muslim manuscripts say the mosque was built in 627 by Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, a Companion of the Prophet who supposedly came on to China in the 620s. Although modern secular scholars