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1305 km (811 miles) to the north-east of
Karachi and 250km (155miles) south of Islamabad, is serviced by a
plethora of international and domestic carriers. Long hauls overland
can be done in the comfort of reliable, air conditioned buses, and
smaller trips in the ubiquitous minibuses. Lahore lies on the main
national line between Peshawar and Karachi and there are frequent
direct services to all major destinations. Lahore, "the city of gardens" and the capital of the Punjab. It is an
ancient town, rich in historical monuments, including
some of the finest
specimens of Muslim architecture -- the Badshahi Mosque of Emperor Aurangzeb,
the Wazir Khan Mosque, the Shalimar Gardens of Emperor Shahjahan, Emperor
Jehangir's Mausoleum and the Royal Fort of Akbar with its fabulous Hall of
Mirrors. Lahore is considered to be the cultural capital of Pakistan because of
its numerous colleges, places of learning, sports activities, frequent stage
plays etc. The Museum in Lahore is considered to be the best in the sub
continent. It houses the statue of fasting Buddha beside a host of priceless
relics. The Horse and Cattle Show is an annual event held at the Fortress
Stadium every spring. It is a pageant of equestrian sports, folk dances, music
and tattoo parades. Lahore is at its best in spring and autumn.
.
A
collection of some of the city's attractions include: The
Mall, an area of parks and buildings with a decidedly British
bent; Lahore Museum, the best and biggest museum in the
country; Kim's Gun, the cannon immortalised in Kipling's
classic Kim; Aitchison College, an achingly beautiful
public school that boasts Imran Khan as a former pupil; Lahore
Fort, filled with stately palaces, halls and gardens; and the
Old City, where a procession of rickshaws, pony carts,
hawkers and veiled women fill the narrow lanes. The city has too
many tombs, mosques and mausoleums too mention.
The city next crops up in literature in connection with the campaigns of the
Turkish dynast Mahmud of Ghazni against the Rajas of Lahore between I00I and
I008. Around this time it established itself as the capital of the Punjab and
thereafter began to play an important and growing role as a centre of Muslim
power and influence in the subcontinent. Its heyday was the Mughal era from the
early sixteenth century onwards and, as Mughal power began to decline in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Lahore suffered a concomitant period of
ignominy and political eclipse. It was here, at the beginning of the nineteenth
century, that the Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh declared himself Maharajah of the
Punjab and allowed his troops to desecrate many of the city's beautiful Islamic
shrines- including the Badshahi Mosque which was, for a while, converted into a
powder magazine. By the time British occupied Lahore in I849, one writer moved
to describe the city as 'a mere expanse of crumbling ruins'
Happily, this was an exaggeration and today the great buildings laid down by
the long-vanished Mughal emperors may be seen in much of their original
splendour. All the adverse influences since then seem to have been washed away,
like sediment carried off by a flood, leaving behind the fundamental character
and beauty of this old Islamic settlement. Fittingly, it was here in I940 that
the Muslim League made its first formal demand for the establishment of a Muslim
homeland. A towering and graceful monument, the Minar-e-Pakistan (shown above.
Please click on the picture for a more detailed view) now stands on the site of
the passing of the Pakistan Resolution.
Nearby, the massively fortified walls of
Lahore Fort
speak eloquently of the centuries of passing history that they have witnessed.
The fort antedates the coming of Mahmud of Ghazni in the eleventh century, was
ruined by the Mangols in I241, rebuilt in I267, destroyed again by Timurlane in
I398 and rebuilt once more in I421. The great Mughal emperor Akbar replaced its
mud walls with solid brick masonry in I566 and extended it northwards. Later
Jehangir, Shah Jehan and Aurangzeb all added the stamps of their widely
differing personalities to its fortification, gateways and palaces.
The fort encloses an area of approximately thirty acres and it is possible to
spend many hours wandering there, lost in contemplation of times gone by, trying
to reconstruct in your imagination a way of life that the world will never see
again. The buildings within its walls are a testament to the gracious style of
Mughal rule at its height, in which every man knew his place and courtly
behaviour had been refined into an elaborately startified social code. Much of
the architecture reflects this code. From a raised balcony in the Diwan-e-Aam,
or Hall of Public Audience, built by Shah Jehan in I63I, the emperors looked
down on the common people over whom they ruled when they came to present
petitions and to request the settlement of disputes. Wealthier citizens and the
nobility were allowed to meet their emperors on a level floor in the
Diwan-e-Khas, the Hall of Special Audience-which was also built by Shah Jehan,
in I633.
While the Hall of Audience are characterized by their strict functionality,
other buildings raised under Shah Jehan's patronage are styled in a more
imaginative and fanciful mood. Of these the Shish Mahal, or Palace of Mirrors,
which stands on the fort's north side, is by far the most splendid. It consists
of a row of high domed rooms, the roofs of which are decked out with hundreds of
thousands of tiny mirrors in the fashion of the traditional Punjabi craft of
"Shishgari" (designs made from mirror fragments). A fire-brand lit inside any
part of the Palace of Mirrors throw back a million reflections that dizzy the
eye and seem like a galaxy of far-off stars turning in an ink-blue firmament.
Another magnificent remnant of the Mughal era, also partially vandalized in
the late eighteenth century by the invading Sikhs, is the Shalimar Garden which
stands on the Grand Trunk Road about eight kilometers to the east of the old
part of Lahore. "Shalimar" means 'House of Joy' and, in truth, the passing
centuries have done nothing to detract from the indefinable atmosphere of
light-heartedness and laughter that characterizes this green and peaceful walled
retreat. A canal runs the entire 2,006 foot (6II meters) length of the garden
and from it 450 sparkling fountains throw up a skein of fresh water that cools
and refreshes the atmosphere, making this a favourite place for afternoon walks
for the citizens of modern Lahore.
Lahore is rightly regarded as the cultural, architectural and artistic center
of Pakistan; indeed, the city is so steeped in historical distinction that it
would be possible to spend a lifetime studying it without learning everything
that there is to learn.
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