Badshahi Mosque

The Badshahi Mosque, the "Imperial Mosque", faces the Alamgiri Gate of the Lahore Fort across the garden square of Hazuri Bagh on the edge of the Walled City of Lahore. It was commissioned by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in 1671 and completed in about two years under the supervision of his foster brother Fidai Khan Koka, governor of Lahore. It was the largest mosque built in the Mughal era, and for some three centuries it had no rival in size anywhere in the world; it remains one of Pakistan's defining landmarks.

Aurangzeb broke with Lahore's own tradition of mosques clad in glazed Persian-style tilework, such as the nearby Wazir Khan Mosque. Instead he followed the model of his father's Jama Masjid in Delhi on a larger scale: red sandstone carved and inlaid with white marble. A flight of 22 steps leads to a two-storey gateway decorated with carved panels and a muqarnas vault, with the emperor's full name inlaid in marble above the arch. Beyond it opens a sandstone-paved courtyard of about 25,600 square metres, which can take some 100,000 worshippers. At its far side stands the prayer hall with three white marble domes, a great central arch flanked by smaller ones, and marble carving of floral motifs that is counted among the finest of Mughal architecture. Four octagonal red sandstone minarets, each about 60 metres tall and capped with a marble pavilion, mark the corners of the courtyard.

The building has had a turbulent life. After Ranjit Singh took Lahore in 1799, the Sikh army used the courtyard as a stable and its cells as barracks, and in 1841 guns were mounted on its minarets to bombard the fort. The British also used it as a garrison and replaced the courtyard cells with the open arcades seen today, before returning it to Lahore's Muslims in 1856. A long restoration from 1939 to 1960 was driven by Sikandar Hayat Khan, Premier of the Punjab, who is buried by the entrance; the poet Muhammad Iqbal also lies in a tomb beside the steps. The mosque keeps a gallery of relics associated with the Prophet Muhammad and his family. It is on Pakistan's tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage.

Getting there

The mosque is on the north-western edge of the Walled City, about 5 km from the centre of Lahore, directly opposite the Lahore Fort and next to the Roshnai Gate, so the two monuments are easily seen together. Allama Iqbal International Airport (LHE) is about 12 km away.