Grand Jamia Mosque Bahria Town Lahore: Visiting Guide

The Grand Jamia Mosque is a large modern mosque inside Bahria Town, on the south-western edge of Lahore. It opened on Eid al-Adha, 6 October 2014, holds about 70,000 people when its courtyards and corridors are counted, and is open to visitors outside prayer times. There is no ticket, but you have to get past the security gate of a private housing scheme first.

It is a very different visit from the Mughal mosques in the Walled City. It is new, planned and spotless, and it works best as a short stop if you are already in Bahria Town or heading out that way.

What is the Grand Jamia Mosque?

It was funded by Bahria Town's owner, Malik Riaz, at a reported cost of about Rs4 billion, and it is often described as the third-largest mosque in Pakistan. It draws on older buildings. Its designers looked to the Badshahi Mosque and Wazir Khan Mosque for its proportions and decoration, but it is built for modern crowds, with wide courtyards and separate prayer space for women.

What to see

• The exterior tiles. About 4 million handmade Multani tiles cover the outside in geometric and floral patterns. Bahria Town says placing them took four years.
• The domes and minarets. One large dome is surrounded by 20 smaller ones, with four minarets at the corners.
• The interior. Carpets imported from Turkey and more than 50 chandeliers from Iran, with calligraphy on the walls.
• The museum and gallery. Bahria Town describes an Islamic art gallery and a Quranic library, including 68 handwritten copies of the Quran said to be 300 to 700 years old. Ask at the mosque whether the museum floor is open on the day you go.

For comparison, the older mosques are covered in our roundup of famous mosques in Lahore, and the Badshahi Mosque guide shows the building that inspired this one.

Dress code and rules

There is no fixed published dress code we could verify, so follow normal mosque practice:

• Cover arms and legs. Men should avoid shorts.
• Women should cover their hair and carry a dupatta or scarf.
• Take your shoes off before the prayer areas.
• Keep quiet inside, and do not photograph people who are praying.
• Do not walk through the hall during congregational prayer. Wait outside until it finishes.

Our page on mosque etiquette in Pakistan has more detail.

How to get in and out of Bahria Town

Bahria Town is a gated community, so you pass a security check at the entrance. We could not find a published visitor procedure for the mosque, so treat these as sensible expectations rather than rules: carry your CNIC (a passport for foreign visitors), expect a vehicle check, and allow extra time on weekends and around Eid, when the gate queues can grow.

Ride-hailing cars and taxis generally reach the mosque. Tell the driver "Grand Jamia Masjid, Bahria Town" rather than just naming the housing scheme, since Bahria Town is large. The mosque now sits about 200 metres from the Lahore Ring Road, which was completed in 2022, so leaving Lahore by the Ring Road is the usual approach. We have not given a drive time, because it depends entirely on where in Lahore you start.

When to go

Ramadan and Fridays are the busiest times, and reviewers on travel sites say the mosque sees visitors all year. If you want a quiet look at the courtyard and tile work, go on a weekday morning. Avoid the hour around Friday prayers.

Is it worth the trip?

If you are choosing between this and the Walled City, choose the Walled City. Badshahi and Wazir Khan are the mosques that explain Lahore. Grand Jamia is worth the trip if you are already in Bahria Town, want to see one of the country's biggest new mosques, or are travelling with older family members who would find the Walled City lanes hard going. Bahria Town also has an Eiffel Tower replica nearby, reviewers put it under a mile away, but treat that as a separate stop. See our experiences page for other things to do in the city.

Frequently asked questions