Emin Minerat

Emin minerat (The minerat for Showing Gratitude to Eminhoja) also called "Sugong minerat" and "The Turpan minerat" by the local Uygur people, is located 2 kilometerseast of the city of Turpan. Built in 1778,it isthe biggest minerat in Xinjiang, and has an architectural style all its own.In the shape of a cone and built of bricks arranged in fifteen patterns of rhombuses,  ripples,varied four-petal flowers, and mountains,the minerat is 37 meters high and 10 meters in diameter at the base. The minerat has 14 windows opened in different directions and at different heights and a seventy-one-stepped spiral flight of stairs leading to the top.At the  entrance of the minerat stands a stone tablet erected when the minerat was built, on which is recorded, in Uygur and Chinese, the reasons for building the minerat. It was built by Turpan prefecture commandant Su Laiman to commemorate and praise his father Eminhoja who achieved brilliant military success in suppressing the armed rebellion raised by the Jungar aristocrats.Next to the minerat is the biggest mosque in the Turpan area, and the two form an integral whole. The rectangular mosque has a hall in its   middle and an arched gate with a pointed top.The hall can hold up to one thousand people attending service. During rel-igious festivals, crowds of people stream into the mosque and makethe mosque a hive of activity.