Shahi Qila (Lahore Fort), Lahore

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Located opposite the Badshahi Mosque the Lahore Fort is 1400 feet long and 1115 wide. It has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site but there is uncertainty surrounding when it was built and by whom. Some archaelogical digs have suggested that the fort was built long before 1025 AD.

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Shahi Qila is situated in front of Badshahi Mosque. It is a huge forte bounding a lot of beauty. A great ancient work of architecture. Without Visiting Lahrore Forte your visit to Lahore is incomplete.

History of Lahoe Forte is very old. Originally It was built some 1000 years ago. But current Lohore Forte was built by Mughal Emperor Akbar in 1566 AD. Then his son Jehangir added his Palace. Jahangir's son, Shahjahan, built Sheesh Mahal (Mirror Palace).

You can see several Royal palaces, gardens, fountains, Baths, Retiring rooms of Mughal period. There is a museum inside the forte. It is also worth visiting place.

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:: ROYAL FORT- LAHORE
Although most parts of the Royal Fort were constructed around 1566 A.D. by the Mughal Emperor, Akbar the Great, there is evidence that a mud fort was in existence here in 1021 A.D. as well, when Mahmood of Ghazna invaded this area. Akbar demolished the old mud fort and constructed most of the modern Fort, as we see it today, on the old foundations.

The Royal Fort is rectangular. The main gates are located alongside the centre of the western and eastern walls. Every succeeding Mughal Emperor as well as the Sikhs, and the British in their turn, added a pavilion, palace or wall to the Fort. Emperor Jehangir extended the gardens and constructed the palaces that we see today in the Jehangir?s Quadrangle, while Shah-Jehan added Diwan-e-Khas, Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque) and his own Sleeping Chambers. Aurangzeb built the impressive main gate which faces the Hazoori Bagh lying in between the Badshahi Mosque and the Fort. The Famous Sheesh Mahal or Palace of Mirrors is in the north-east corner of the Fort. This is the most beautiful palace in the Fort and is decorated with small mirrors of different colours set.

The part of the wall of the Elephant Steps towards the Fort?s inner gate are scarred by bullet marks, bearing testimony to the Sikh Civil War of 1847 A.D.

The Sleeping Chamber of Mai Jindan houses a very interesting museum with relics from Mughal and the Sikh periods.

Hey! We VTers had lots of fun visiting Lahore Fort. Here in this picture u will find Matthew (zinneke) in Pakistani national dress in white on the left and Usama (xest) on the right. This was a very nice VT meeting :-)

In this picture, these VTers are standing right in front of Dewan-e-Aam - The hall for public audience for the Mughal kings nearly 700 years back until the 19th century when the Britishers killed the king.

The massive walls of Lahore Fort, built by Akbar in 1560s,tower over the old city of Lahore,and the huge rectangle they define, 380 by 330 meters(1,250 by 1,080 ft), is filled with buildinds from a verity of periods.A complete tour of the fort takes about 2 hours.Opens from 9am to 4pm in winter & 9 am to 5pm in summer.The entrance is through Alamgiri Gate, the Maktab Khana (Clerks' House) is a small cloistered court surrounded by arcades in which clerks sat recording the names of visitors. The inscription outside tells that it was built by jahangir in 1618.

The Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque) is entered via steps rising from the comer of the large courtyard north of the Maktab Khana. This little gem was built by Shah Jahan 1644. The Diwan-e-Am (Hall of Public Audience) is an open pavilion with 40 pillars built by Shah Jahan in 1631 to shelter his subjects when they appeared before him. The marble pavilion and red sandstone balcony at the back of the Diwan-e-Am are originals built by Akbar. Here the emperor appeared daily before the public-who, in his day, crowded under a canvas awning. The serpentine sandstone brackets are typical of Akbar's commissions, with the depiction of animals showing Hindu influence and reflecting Akbar's policy of religious tolerance.His two-story Diwan-e-Khas (Hall of Private Audience), built in 1566, is behind the balcony and is reached by stairs on the tight.

Masti (or Masjidi) Gate is cast of the Diwan-e-Am. It was the original main gate to the fort built by Akbar in 1566. Jahangir's Quadrangle, north of the Diwan-e-Am, and one of the fort's most attractive areas, was started by Akbar in 1566 and finished by Jahangir in 1617. The buildings on the east, west and south sides of the court reflect typical Akbari style, with richly carved red sandstone columns and elaborate animal-shaped brackets. Behind the buildings to the east is Akbar's Court.

Being one of the major cities of the Mughal Empire, Lahore is littered with many examples of classical Mughal architecture. Most of this can be found in the old portion of Lahore, and the centerpeice of that area is the Lahore fort.

The fort is an extremely large complex that housed the Mughal court in the city. Within it are numerous buildings ranging from mosques, to prisons, to gardens, to halls. A lot of history is contained within, and a trip to the fort would make a great day trip.

Despite the vast amount of sights in the fort, a lot of them are not as beautiful as they once were. Unfortunatly, a lot of the buildings were plundered in the 19th century by the British, and are only a shadow of what they once were. The fort must have been quite a spectacle at it's peak.

The admission is about five rupees. You can hire a tour guide for about twenty five rupees. If you are a foreigner, a couple of them will probably rush to meet you. I recall seeing a Chinese gentleman escorted by about three at once.

there is this little hole in the fort where people have seen spirits of an old man worshipping God...people thought it was some religious old man's spirit so they went there to see him and now they have put rods infront of the holew soo ppl may not go there and bug the spirit

It is the historical fort of Pakistan,more beautiful than the red Fort in Dehli.A must see site....
A historical site is always worth seeing .U can visit the Fort and see for yourself hoe the Mughals used to live there and how they managed their affairs.