Lahore: a thousand years of capitals

A short history

The first clear written mention is in the Hudud al-Alam of 982 CE, which describes a city of temples, markets and orchards. Mahmud of Ghazni took it between 1020 and 1027, and his governor Malik Ayaz rebuilt it, walling the city and raising a masonry fort around 1037-1040. By 1152 Lahore was the eastern capital of the Ghaznavid empire and a serious centre for poetry.

Under the Delhi Sultanate it became the first capital of the Mamluk dynasty and drew more Persian poets than any other city of its day. Then in 1584 Akbar made it his capital and began rebuilding the ruined citadel — the foundation of the Lahore Fort you walk around now.

Shah Jahan gave it the marble. The Naulakha Pavilion went up in 1633, the Shalimar Gardens in 1641, and his physician Wazir Khan built the tiled mosque and the hammam that carry his name. Aurangzeb added the Badshahi Mosque in 1673 and the Alamgiri Gate in 1674.

After Aurangzeb died in 1707 the city declined badly through succession wars and the Durrani invasions. By 1765 it had, in the blunt phrase of the record, lost all of its former grandeur. The Sikhs took it in 1767; the British annexed it in 1849 and made it the capital of Punjab. The Lahore Resolution of 1940, which set out the case for Pakistan, was passed here.

Places worth your time

Lahore Fort and the Shalimar Gardens

Inscribed together as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. Give the fort a full morning — the Sheesh Mahal and the Picture Wall are the parts people remember.

Badshahi Mosque

Aurangzeb's, from 1673, and the largest of the city's Mughal monuments. The courtyard at evening prayer is the single best hour in Lahore.

Wazir Khan Mosque

Smaller, seventeenth century, and covered inside and out in tilework of a quality that is hard to believe until you are standing under it. Deep in the Walled City.

The Walled City and the Delhi Gate

Best walked early, before the traffic. The restored stretch from Delhi Gate through the Shahi Hammam is the easiest way in.

Lahore Museum

For the Gandharan collection, including the Fasting Buddha, which is worth the trip on its own.

Food Street and Anarkali

Both are busy, both are touristed, and both are still excellent. Go hungry and go late.

Before you go

October to March is comfortable; May and June are brutal and the monsoon arrives in July. Four or five hours from Islamabad on the motorway, or an hour by air. Two full days is the minimum that does it justice.