Lahore Fort

• 1. Introduction

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  Lahore Fort stands in the walled interior of Lahore, Pakistan. One of its marble pavilions once inspired a writer thousands of miles away. Rudyard Kipling named his home in Vermont Naulakha, after a pavilion inside these walls. Why would an English writer reach across the world for a name from this fortress? The fort spreads across more than 20 hectares at the northern end of the Walled City. It holds 21 recognized monuments, several tracing back to the reign of Emperor Akbar. Nearly all of what stands today was rebuilt in the 17th century, when the Mughal Empire was at the height of its wealth and splendor. Who laid the first stones here, centuries before the Mughals ever arrived? What did the Sikhs, and later the British, make of a fortress built for emperors? And how did a citadel meant to guard an empire's frontier come to be recognized as a world heritage treasure?

• 2. Centuries Of Conquest

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  An 11th-century mudbrick fort marks the earliest recorded structure on this site, built during the rule of Mahmud of Ghazni. Mongol forces destroyed it in 1241, during the Siege of Lahore. Sultan Balban of the Mamluk dynasty, part of the Delhi Sultanate, ordered a new fort raised on the same ground in 1267.

  Timur's invading army tore that structure down in 1398. Mubarak Shah Sayyid rebuilt it again in 1421. Shaikh Ali of Kabul held the fort through the 1430s, and it later fell under the Lodi dynasty's control. In 1526, the Mughal Emperor Babur captured Lahore, bringing the fort into an empire that would rebuild it beyond recognition.

• 3. Akbar's Foundations And Layout

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  In 1566, Emperor Akbar occupied this site to guard the empire's northwest frontier. That frontier lay between Mughal territory and the strongholds of Kabul, Multan, and Kashmir. He ordered the old mud fort dismantled and replaced with solid brick masonry, then raised palaces and gardens over time. Structures from this period included the Doulat Khana-e-Khas-o-Am, the Jharoka-e-Darshan, and one of two gates Akbar built, the Akbari Gate, known today as Maseeti Gate. The building style blended Islamic and Hindu motifs, a mix later generations preserved and reworked.

  The fort's outer wall forms a parallelogram measuring 365 by 320 metres, split lengthwise into two halves. The southern half, reserved for administration, connects to the main entrances and holds gardens along with the Diwan-e-Khas. The northern half is a concealed residential section, reached through an elephant gate, containing the Sheesh Mahal along with bedrooms and small gardens. Five quadrangles make up the fort: Diwan-e-Aam, Moti Masjid, Jahangir's, Shah Jahan's, and Paien Bagh. Blue Persian tiles, a style called kashi kari, cover many interior walls. Corbels carved in animal shapes reveal a continuing Hindu architectural influence throughout the design.

• 4. A Palace Of Mirrors And Marble

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  Shah Jahan's first project at the fort began in 1628, the year of his coronation. It was the Diwan-i-Aam, a public audience hall styled after a Persian Chehel Sotoun, meaning forty pillars. Construction on this and later additions continued until 1645. The Shah Burj had been started under Jahangir, but Shah Jahan disliked its design and put Asif Khan in charge of rebuilding it. His Shah Burj forms a quadrangle with the Sheesh Mahal, the Palace of Mirrors.

  Mirza Ghiyas Begh built the Sheesh Mahal in 1631-32. He was the grandfather of Mumtaz Mahal and father of Nur Jahan. Its walls carry frescoes, inlaid pietra dura stonework, and elaborate mirror-work known as aina-kari. This craftsmanship earned it a reputation as the jewel of the fort.

  The Naulakha Pavilion stands to the west of the Sheesh Mahal. Builders completed it in 1633 at a cost of around 900,000 rupees, an exorbitant sum at the time. Its name comes from the Urdu word for that figure, 900,000. The pavilion is built of white marble with a curved roof drawn from Bengali tradition, topped with a European-style baldachin. It was originally inlaid with precious and semi-precious stones. Its marble shades were capped with merlons to hide the view from the grounds below.

  Shah Jahan also built the white marble Moti Masjid, known as the Pearl Mosque, completing it between 1630 and 1635. Nearby, the Khilwat Khana housed the royal women of the court. Shah Jahan had it built in 1633, with a marble plinth, door frames, and a curved roof. Inside the Diwan-i-Khas, the emperor met with courtiers and state guests, in sessions preceded by processions that could run for up to an hour.

  Aurangzeb, the last of the great Mughal emperors, built the fort's monumental Alamgiri Gate in 1674. Its semi-circular bastions, domed cupolas, and lotus-petal base carvings became a widely recognized symbol of the city. The gate opens toward the Hazuri Bagh and faces the Badshahi Mosque, and its image once appeared on Pakistani currency. Aurangzeb would be the last emperor to add a major structure to Lahore Fort before Mughal power itself began to fade.

• 5. Jahangir's Additions

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  British visitors during Jahangir's reign noted something unexpected inside the fort: paintings of the Madonna and Jesus, clear Christian iconography in a Mughal palace. Guru Arjan of the Sikh faith was imprisoned here in 1606, before his death, decades before Sikh rulers would ever govern the fort themselves. Jahangir first recorded his own alterations to the fort in 1612, describing the Maktab Khana, the Clerk's Quarters.

  That structure, originally called the Dawlat Khana-e-Jahangir, was built in 1617 under the supervision of Mamur Khan and designed by Khawaja Jahan Muhammad Dost. Clerks stationed there recorded the entry of every guest into the fort. The building also served as a passage to the Audience Hall from the palace buildings to the north. Its four sides each feature Persian-Timurid iwans flanked by arches.

  Nearby, the Mosque of Mariyam Zamani Begum rose along the fort's eastern walls during Jahangir's reign. Empress Mariam-uz-Zamani laid its foundation in 1611. The mosque likely served Friday prayers for the Royal Court. Jahangir did not finance it himself, though it probably needed his approval.

  In the Khilwat Khana's northwest corner stands the Kala Burj, the Black Pavilion, the most significant Jahangir-era addition to the fort. Its vaulted ceiling carries paintings, in a European-influenced style, of angels tied to King Solomon. The Quran regards Solomon as an ideal ruler, one Jahangir identified with. Painted tiles nearby show angels directing djinns, another reference to Solomon.

  Across the courtyard, in the northeast corner, stands the octagonal Lal Burj, the Red Pavilion, begun under Jahangir and finished under Shah Jahan. Its windows face north to catch cool breezes. Most of its interior frescoes, and its entire upper level, date from the later Sikh era.

  Jahangir also commissioned the fort's most ambitious artwork, a wall along the northern and western ramparts covered in glazed tile, faience mosaics, and frescoes. Unlike the Red Fort or Agra Fort, this fort's ramparts were built of brick rather than red stone. The wall stretches roughly 1,450 by 50 feet and holds 116 decorated panels.

  Its scenes, including elephant fights, polo matches, and angels, form no single continuous story and can each be read on their own. Below Jahangir's own bedchamber, the spandrels show azdahas, winged dragons from Persian mythology, alongside cup-bearing angels, herons, and cranes. One panel depicts four horsemen at what period sources call the game of Vaughan, now known as polo. Elephant fights recur most often, reflecting one of the Mughal court's favorite pastimes.

  Work on the wall continued through the 1620s and may have been completed under Jahangir's son, Shah Jahan. Centuries of neglect left the wall damaged. Conservation work began only in 2015, led by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the Walled City of Lahore Authority. The same partnership had already restored the Wazir Khan Mosque and the Shahi Hammam elsewhere in Lahore. A 3D scanner finished documenting every inch of the wall in July 2016, clearing the way for repairs to begin.

• 6. From Mughal Grandeur To Sikh Rule

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  The Bhangi Misl, one of twelve Sikh Misls that once divided Punjab, held Lahore Fort from 1765 until 1799. Ranjit Singh took the fort from the Bhangi Misl in 1799, founding what became the Sikh Empire. His forces built the Hazuri Bagh garden and its central baradari to mark his capture of the Koh-i-Noor diamond.

  Inside the fort, the Moti Masjid was renamed Moti Mandir, converted first into a Sikh temple and later into the royal treasury. Chand Kaur, daughter-in-law of Ranjit Singh, built the Naag Temple, a square shrine on a raised platform topped with a watermelon-shaped dome. The site is now closed to the public to prevent further deterioration. New Sikh-era structures also included the three-doored Sehdari pavilion and the eight-doored Ath dara. The surviving Sehdari pavilion served as an office for Faqir Syed Noor-ud-din, one of Ranjit Singh's trusted governors.

  The Mai Jindan Haveli was extensively modified during this period, and the Kharak Singh Haveli was added nearby. The two-storied Mai Jindan Haveli now houses the Sikh Gallery Museum. A new outer wall also went up parallel to the Picture Wall.

  In 1841, Ranjit Singh's son Sher Singh bombarded the fort while fighting Chand Kaur, destroying the Diwan-i-Aam. Kharak Singh, Ranjit Singh's elder son and successor, had been born inside the fort to his wife, Maharani Datar Kaur. The youngest son, Maharaja Duleep Singh, was born at the Mai Jindan Haveli in 1838.

  In 1847, Duleep Singh signed the Treaty of Bhyroval, effectively ending the Sikh Empire. The fort and the city stayed under his family's control until the Sikh Empire fell in 1849. That collapse followed the East India Company's victory at the Battle of Gujrat in February 1849, which brought all of Punjab under British control.

• 7. Secrets Beneath The Summer Palace

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  Beneath the Sheesh Mahal and Shah Burj quadrangle lies the Summer Palace, also called the Pari Mahal, or Fairy Palace. This labyrinth of chambers dates from the Shah Jahan period and once served as a residence during the hottest months. Ventilation systems channelled cool breezes through the rooms, while a double-layered floor held a layer of water pumped in from the Ravi River. Roughly 42 waterfalls and cascades carried rose-perfumed water through the palace.

  For most of its history the palace was reachable only from the Sheesh Mahal above. The British later added a new entrance near Hathi Pul, the Elephant Stairs. Whitewashing and centuries of dampness have badly deteriorated its frescoes and marble inlay. Passage tunnels also run from the palace to the fort's exterior, near where the River Ravi once flowed. This may have formed an escape route, allowing occupants to flee the fort in an attack.

  Ranjit Singh used the Summer Palace as his own residence during the Sikh period. After the Sikh defeat in the Second Anglo-Sikh War, control passed to the East India Company, then in 1858 to the British Raj. Starting in World War Two, the British Civil Defence Department used the palace as a storehouse. Pakistan continued that use until 1973, which weakened the building's structural integrity.

  Since 2014, the Walled City of Lahore Authority has overseen its restoration with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Once finished, the space is meant to house the Lahore Fort's museum.

• 8. Excavations And World Heritage Status

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  In 1959, excavations in front of the Diwan-i-Am uncovered a gold coin dated to 1025 CE, linked to Mahmud Ghaznavi. Workers found the coin 25 feet below the lawn. Cultural layers continued down to 15 feet, showing people lived on the site even before Ghaznavi's conquest. Other finds included terracotta figures of a mother goddess, horses, bulls, and other objects of Hindu origin.

  In April 2007, workers relaying the floor of the Akbari Gate uncovered three distinct floors, from the British, Sikh, and Mughal periods. These were built of bricks, burnt bricks, and pebbles respectively, with the Mughal layer dating to either Jahangir's or Shah Jahan's era.

  Pakistan first nominated the fort for UNESCO recognition in 1980, alongside the Shalimar Gardens, citing three separate criteria. The World Heritage Committee added both sites to the list in October 1981, at a meeting held in Sydney.

  In 2000, Pakistan asked UNESCO to place both sites on the List of World Heritage in Danger. It also requested help repairing the outer walls and hydraulic works at Shalamar Gardens. By April 2006, officials were urging UNESCO to remove the fort from that endangered list. Restoration funded by Norway, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and France covered work at the Sheesh Mahal, Alamgiri Gate, and Hazuri Bagh. The fort and Shalimar Gardens came off the endangered list in June 2012.

  UNESCO had ordered Punjab's Archaeological Department in 1990 to stop hosting state or private functions inside the fort. A wedding reception went ahead anyway, on the 23rd of December 2010. The following month, a dinner held in the Diwan-i-Khas violated the Antiquities Act of 1975 as well.

  Under a 2017 Local Government Act, the fort, known locally as Shahi Qila, now also functions as a union council within Lahore's Ravi Zone.