The Alamgiri Gate is one of the main gates to the Lahore Fort. It was built by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1674, and faces the Badshahi Mosque, which Aurangzeb also built.
And so here we are at Lahore, the final city in my final Grand Tour of the port and princely cities of the East.
And what a city to end this Grand Tour on! All in all, I have been entranced by Lahore…by the beauty of its monuments, by the friendliness of the Lahoris, and by its streets redolent with poetry.
Map of the City of Lahore (Baedeker. 1914) [Public Domain.]
Of the six, the Emperor Jahangir, and his Empress Nur Jahan were most beguiled by this city – and their mausoleums are here, side by side…well almost… in the suburb of Shahdara.
The Emperor Aurangzeb, that most pious of Mughal Emperors, erected his most enduring architectural legacy here in the city, in the form of the Badshahi Mosque – the largest mosque in the world, in its time.
It is still a sight to behold, situated as it is, at the edge of the stupendous Lahore Fort and Old Lahore with its maze-like warren of bazaars and alleyways, studded here and there with exquisite Mughal-era mosques, havelis and even a hammam.
Jahangir’s Tomb (1637), Shahdara.
Badshahi Mosque (1673).
Day-tripping family in the Lahore Fort.
Interior of Wazir Khan Mosque (1641), Old Lahore.
Interior detail, Mosque of Maryam Zamani Begum (1614). This is the earliest Mughal mosque in the city.
Shahi Hammam (1635) is the last remaining Mughal-era hammam in Lahore.
The 17th century Haveli of Asif Khan (also known as Dhyan Singh) houses the Fatimah Jinnah College for Women today.
Haveli of Nau Nihal Singh (1840), houses the Victoria Girls’ High School today.
The gold bazaar, Old Lahore.
Like Delhi, Lahore has been continuously inhabited for centuries, and so it has layers upon layers of imperial history. Qutb al-Din Aitbak, founder of the Mamluk (Slave) Dynasty and first sultan of the Delhi Sultanate is buried here, his mausoleum erected at the spot where he purportedly died from falling off his horse during a game of polo.
Across the street from the mausoleum stands the denuded pyramid of a gopuram – the sacred tower of a former Hindu Temple, now sadly disused after the mass migration of Hindus in the aftermath of partition.
The Sikhs were also here as rulers. Between 1799 – 1849, Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured the city, and imposed his own specific brand of architecture onto its urban landscape. The most imposing and evident of these stand at the very edge of the Lahore Fort – the former seat of the Mughal Emperors.
Mausoleum of Qutb al-Din Aitbak, Anarkali Bazaar.
Across the street sits the old gopuram of a now defunct Hindu Temple.
The Samadhi of Ranjit Singh (1848) stands at right by the walls of the Lahore Fort.
Chauburji (1646) was built in the Shah Jahan era.
And then the British came, and made Lahore the capital of British Punjab. Their most visible legacy is Mall Road – a road that runs for miles west to East linking the colonial district with Old Lahore. The road, too, is studded with architectural monuments, but from the British Imperial era.
A major highlight on Mall Road is the delightful Lahore Museum, interior-designed, curated and directed by John Lockwood Kipling, father to Rudyard Kipling. The Museum hosts one of the greatest, and most beautiful collections of Gandharan sculpture, including some pieces of great sensuality.
Lahore Junction Railway Station (1860) was built in the style of a fortified castle.
Colonial, commercial edifices on Mall Road.
The General Post Office (1887), Mall Road.
Tollinton Market, Mall Road.
Lahore Museum, designed by Sir Ganga Ram in an Indo-Saracenic Style.
The interiors of the museum were designed by John Lockwood Kipling.
The Fasting Buddha (2nd C.E.) is one of the masterpieces of Lahore Museum’s collection of Gandharan Art.
An extremely sensuous Gandharan bodhisattva, Lahore Museum.
Statue of Queen Victoria, Lahore Museum.
One of the highlights of the city was the fact that it is not yet easy for foreigners to get to. And so there was hardly a tourist in sight at almost all of the sites and monuments I visited. All I experienced was friendliness and curiosity – and multiple requests from locals of all walks of life for me to take smiling selfies with them.
I gladly acquiesced. =)
Yes indeed, Lahore is sensual and mesmerising. A dream of a city; and one I would return to again and again, if I had the chance. Enraptured by the city at its zenith, the Empress Nur Jahan once coined this verse:
“Lahore ra ba jan brabar kharidah im / Jan dadah im o jannat i digar kharidah im.”
“We have bought Lahore by paying the price of our life, / And giving up our soul, have procured a second paradise.”
Lahore is indeed a “second paradise” on earth.
The Shalimar Gardens (1642) were completed during the reign of the Emperor Shah Jahan. It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981, and is simply exquisite.
Asif Khan’s Tomb (1645), stands just beside
Food Street, in Old Lahore, was the city’s former red-light district. It has since been transformed into what it’s name suggests, and is one of the best places for traditional Lahori food.
The ginormous Pearl Continental Hotel (colloquially referred to as “PC Hotel”) is the city’s contemporary grand international hotel.
The Minar-e-Pakistan is a national monument completed in 1968 near the Lahore Fort. It was built to commemorate the Lahore Resolution, which eventually led to an independent Pakistan.
The Badshahi Mosque, Lahore.
Essential Reference: LAHORE – History and Architecture of Mughal Monuments, by Anjum Rehmani. Pakistan: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Dream Of A City 