Lahore Fort

The Lahore Fort, the Shahi Qila, occupies the northern corner of Lahore's walled city and covers more than 20 hectares. A mud fort stood here by the 11th century, and it was destroyed and rebuilt several times — by the Mongols in 1241, by Timur in 1398 — before the Mughal emperor Akbar replaced it in brick in 1566 to guard the empire's northwestern frontier. What makes it special is that the complex was then almost entirely rebuilt during the 17th century, when the Mughal court was at its most lavish, so the fort is effectively a catalogue of Mughal taste at its peak.

Each emperor left a signature. Jahangir commissioned the Picture Wall, about 440 metres long and covered in glazed tiles, faience mosaic and frescoes showing elephant fights, polo matches, winged dragons and angels. Shah Jahan added a forty-pillared public audience hall, the white marble Moti Masjid, and the Shah Burj quadrangle with the Sheesh Mahal, a pavilion whose walls glitter with pietra dura and mirror-work, and the Naulakha Pavilion with its curved marble roof; Rudyard Kipling later named his Vermont home after it. Aurangzeb built the monumental Alamgiri Gate, whose rounded bastions face the Badshahi Mosque across the Hazuri Bagh garden.

After the Mughals the fort became the residence of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh Empire, who displayed the Koh-i-Noor diamond in the Sheesh Mahal and added pavilions and temples of his own; the British took it over in 1849 and turned many halls into barracks. In 1981 UNESCO inscribed the fort, together with the Shalimar Gardens, as a World Heritage Site. A good visit takes in the Hathi Pul elephant stairway, the Picture Wall, and the Alamgiri Gate, which forms a square around the Hazuri Bagh with the Badshahi Mosque and the Samadhi of Ranjit Singh.

Getting there

The fort is in the Walled City of Lahore, about 5 km from the city centre point. Allama Iqbal International Airport (LHE) is about 12 km away.