Mughal Pakistan: Lahore, Rohtas Fort and Thatta

Arrive in Lahore

We meet you at Allama Iqbal International Airport, about 15 km from the centre of Lahore, and drive you to your hotel. The rest of the day is free to recover from the flight. In the evening your guide goes through the plan for the week.

Overnight: Lahore

Lahore Fort and the Badshahi Mosque

The fort covers more than 20 hectares and holds 21 notable monuments, built on foundations laid by Akbar in 1566. We take most of the morning over Jahangir's Picture Wall, Shah Jahan's Diwan-i-Aam, the mirrored Sheesh Mahal of 1631 to 1632 and the Naulakha Pavilion of 1633, and leave by Aurangzeb's Alamgiri Gate of 1674. Across the Hazuri Bagh stands the Badshahi Mosque, whose courtyard holds 100,000 worshippers and which was the largest mosque in the world for more than three hundred years; the tomb of the poet Muhammad Iqbal is beside its entrance. The fort and the Shalimar Gardens were listed together by UNESCO in 1981.

Overnight: Lahore

The Walled City and the Shalimar Gardens

We enter the Walled City on foot by the Delhi Gate and follow the Shahi Guzargah, the route Mughal nobles took to the fort. The Shahi Hammam, a bathhouse built in 1635, was restored between 2013 and 2015 and still has its frescoes; the Wazir Khan Mosque, about 260 m west of the gate and built from 1634 to 1641, is covered outside in glazed tile and inside in fresco. In the afternoon we drive to the Shalimar Gardens, about 5 km east of the Delhi Gate: three terraces covering 16 hectares, with more than 400 fountains. Travellers who wish can go on to the evening flag ceremony at the Wagah border, about 30 km east of the city.

Overnight: Lahore

The Shahdara tombs and Hiran Minar

Shahdara is across the Ravi, about 9 km and 25 minutes from the fort. Jahangir's tomb, finished in 1637, has no dome, at his own wish, and four minarets about 30 m high around a marble cenotaph inlaid with pietra dura; it is entered through the Akbari Sarai, with the tomb of Asif Khan next to it and the tomb of the empress Nur Jahan, stripped of its marble in the Sikh period, beyond the railway line. From there it is about 46 km, an hour, to Hiran Minar at Sheikhupura, where a tower about 30 m high was raised in 1606 in memory of Jahangir's pet antelope and a pavilion stands in the middle of a large tank, reached by a causeway. The drive back to Lahore is about 42 km.

Overnight: Lahore

Rohtas Fort and on to Islamabad

Rohtas Fort is about 190 km from Lahore, around 3.5 hours up the Grand Trunk Road, and stands 8 km south of the road near Dina. It was not built by the Mughals but against them: Sher Shah Suri began it in 1541, after driving the emperor Humayun out of India, and the fort passed to Humayun in 1555, though the Mughal emperors made little use of it. The walls run for about 4 km with 68 bastions and at least twelve gates, and we walk from the Sohail Gate to the Kabuli Gate, the Shahi Mosque and the haveli of Raja Man Singh. Islamabad is a further 110 km, about 2 hours.

Overnight: Islamabad

Departure from Islamabad, or fly to Karachi for Thatta

Islamabad International Airport is about 35 km from the centre, under an hour outside the rush hour, and we drive you there for your flight home. Travellers taking the extension fly to Karachi today instead and spend the next day at Thatta, about 100 km and 2 hours east of the city. The Shah Jahan Mosque there, built from 1644 to 1647, has 93 domes, no minarets and some of the finest tile work in South Asia, and the Makli necropolis, 6 km away, is a World Heritage Site of tombs from the 14th to the 18th century.