Fort and Shalamar Gardens

Lahore undoubtedly is the most interesting city in Pakistan. It has the excellent Lahore museum, the Badshahi mosque, the narrow bustling streets of Old Lahore, and even two more Tentative Sites within its city borders. What has been inscribed though are the Mughal-era Fort and Shalamar Gardens.

The Fort and Gardens lie some 8 km apart and I visited them on two separate days in December 2023. Lahore Fort is situated within a large complex of monumental buildings. 'Hidden' behind an entrance gate and with a large parking lot are an important Sikh shrine (which I only saw from the outside, but it attracts many Indian Sikh pilgrims), the Badshahi Mosque and Lahore Fort.

The Badshahi Mosque wins the battle for where to look first: the enormous but perfectly symmetrical red sandstone building faces what was the main entrance to the fort, the Alamgiri Gate with its white, fluted towers. The fort entrance nowadays is via security gates around the corner, where you also have to pay the 500 rupees (1.50 EUR) fee. A short walk then leads to the gates to the inner structure with the recently restored Picture Wall, a stretch of wall fully covered with glazed tiles depicting scenes with elephants and such. This is the part of the entire fort that is in the best condition, though it is a bit hard to admire as you are separated from it by a wide moat.

The inner courtyard has an endless series of small …

We arrived at Lahore Fort’s main Alamgiri gate to find it firmly closed for the next 3 days. The army had taken over, both to protect it from Taliban attacks (one was imminently expected by the government in retaliation for their “allowing”, as the Pakistani Taliban see it, US drone attacks such as the one which had recently killed their leader) and as a holding place for troops kept in reserve in case of sectarian riots in Lahore during the last 2 days of the Muharram festival. So what to do?

Well – we could still “claim” the WHS by visiting the nearby jointly inscribed Shalimar Gardens which, we understood, were still open, but it would be a shame to miss out on the Fort. Pleas to the guards on a side door we found open were to no avail – we persuaded them to phone their commander with our passport details but “no go”. Now, experience has taught me 2 things when faced with travel problems – don’t give up but wait around at least for a while, the situation might change and new opportunities might emerge. Also, be proactive in a friendly, helpful manner. Sure enough, a few jeeps and cars later a staff car drew up containing a senior officer. The situation was explained, together with our “sincere and significant desire” to see this example of Pakistani history (we might have even allowed an impression to gather which exaggerated a bit our importance as potential diplomats/VIPS …

I visited the Shalimar Gardens with locals, so I didn't pay the foreigner's fee late November/2003 and they were worth the visit. The walls and floors were hand carved and made of marble and sandstone. There is no support for the ceiling, made of huge blocks of sandstone. The construction was well planned for acoustics. An artificial waterfall operates during the tourist season.. Nearby is a marble enclosure with a seat where Shah jahan sat.

The guide spoke only Urdu so the locals translated for me. He charged too much for his fee and the locals told me I should not have paid him less the the Rs. 200 he demanded. I am 69 years of age and travelled there to visit some cricket friends and the old Indus Valley civilization sites.