Masjid Wazir Khan, a Mughal mosque in Lahore; Its view from the old Delhi Gate; Giving the feel as you are standing in one of the bazaars of ancient Cairo…

Image Source: *abro* at Flickr

While browsing through Wikipedia, I found this rare picture of Lahore Railway Station, back in the 1880s.

The surroundings look all deserted giving the Station building an impressive elevation. I only wish if I could turn the time back and have a Buggy ride from Railway Station to Flattei’s Hotel on the Mall… 8)

Source: Wikipedia

“This is a low-resolution and cropped (down to 40% of original size) version of Photograph of the Railway Station at Lahore, Pakistan, taken by George Craddock in the 1880s, part of the Bellew Collection of Architectural Views. Oriental and India Office Collection. British Library.“

March 23,1940: It was today when Lahore welcomed thousands of Indian Muslims gathering at Minto Park, Lahore under the flag of All India Muslim League to witness passing of the Lahore Resolution. The same resolution paved way for establishment of a common ideological base for Pakistan’s creation.

It all happened due to the struggle and leadership of a single man; a man who stood up for a cause and led a nation to achieve the impossible. He is our Great leader; Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

Minar-e-Pakistan, then Minto Park
Source: Wikipedia

What we need today more than ever is a leader like Jinnah… May God guide the people who have this country’s command in their hands, to make right decisions for the good cause of Pakistan’s 162 million people… Amen!

Read more about Lahore Resolution:

Story of Pakistan
Wikipedia
Pakistan Times

“In the spirit of all the holiday gift giving that will be taking place over the next couple of months, all the Metroblogging cities are giving 7 gifts to the world throughout the week of NOV 26th – DEC 2. Lahore comes up with its 4th Gift to the World.”

Many are not aware of the contributions that some of the most prominent Lahorites have made towards various fields of learning including science, mathematics, philosophy, arts, and literature.

Lahore proudly gifts to the world, four Nobel laureates:

Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling (Nobel Prize in Literature 1907) – Born in Bombay and later lived in Lahore for a few years, Mr. Kipling was a literary genius, with such classics as Jungle Book, Kim and many more under his belt.

Har Gobind Khorana

Har Gobind Khorana (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1968) – Mr Khorana did his Msc from University of the Punjab, Lahore and then proceded for PhD at University of Liverpool. He later became a Professor of Biology and Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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“In the spirit of all the holiday gift giving that will be taking place over the next couple of months, all the Metroblogging cities are giving 7 gifts to the world throughout the week of NOV 26th – DEC 2. Lahore comes up with its 3rd Gift to the World.”

Anarkali Bazar, named after the famous courtesan of Emperor Akbar’s court, Anarkali, is one of the most enchanting places in Lahore.

Anarkali Bazaar, Lahore

Founded by Emperor Jahangir some 400 years back, Anarkali Bazar is one of the oldest surviving markets in South Asia. Originating from the Mall near Lahore Museum, it’s just like a maze of narrow alleys and lanes stretching northwards towards Old Lahore.

It has a captivating history related to the character after which it is named. According to the legend Mughal Emperor Akbar’s son Prince Salim fell in love with Anarkali, Emperor Akbar’s coutesan who was given the title of Anarkali; ‘Pomegranate Blossom’ due to her charm and beauty by the Emperor himself.

Anarkali’s Tomb, Lahore

When exposed, their relationship was disapproved by Emperor Akbar as Anarkali was a dancing girl and was of no noble birth. When the lovers rebelled against the Emperor, Anarkali was buried alive in a wall which is said to be located within the bazaar. Her tomb is still there housed in the Punjab Secretariat near Anarkali Bazaar. Engraved on Anarkali’s grave is a couplet in Persion by Prince Salim a.k.a Emperor Jahangir:

“Ah! could I behold the face of my beloved once more, I would give thanks to my God until the day of resurrection.”

While strolling through its narrow paths, one can imagine the legend to be true and go back in time to the era of Anarkali. Hundreds of years old buildings, dazzling shops and buzzing streets make this bazaar so unique in its charm and character.

Anarkali Bazar is a shopper’s heaven selling virtually everything from handicrafts to soveniers; antiques to artifacts; electronics to every sorts of cloth, ready made garments and woven clothing. Prices are quite affordable and much lesser than other commercial areas of the city. Plus, while in Anarkali, you must bargain hard, for chances are you may succeed in getting things on as much as 50% of their listed price.
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Image Source: http://www.greatmirror.com

This I believe is the only statue of a human figure left in its original place in Lahore. Located across the street from the Lahore Museum, I think not many of us actually notice it. I wonder how our Mullah folks have not touched it yet. We proudly demolished Jain Mandir, set a few churches and even Diyal Singh Mansion on fire during the riots in recent years. But this statue seem to have been missed out somehow. May be because its hardly visible from main road?

Anyways in case you don’t know, the statue above is of Alfred Woolner who was a long-serving professor of Sanskrit, as well as vice-chancellor of Punjab University between 1928 and 1936.

I apologize to our readers for my two week absence. My studies have started once again and the course load of medical school leaves me very little time to be able to post regularly, however; I will try my best to keep the post intervals to a minimum.

Today we will finish off with the tour of the Lahore Fort. Over the last few months, we have gone through numerous buildings and structures spread throughout the fort and I hope I was able to spread some of my love for Lahori history to my respected readers. I am aware that I probably did not cover all of the interesting places in the fort but I hope that these posts have raised at least some level of curiosity among the readers in that, if possible, they would visit the Lahore Fort themselves to take in some of the things I have missed and also to fully enjoy for themselves the buildings and structures I presented here in a pictorial tour of the Lahore Fort. Though, we will finish our tour of Lahore Fort today but the Lahore History Tour will continue on and hopefully highlight many of the numerous other historical sites and structures in Lahore.

Now, on to today’s post….making our way out of the Moti Mosque, we head down a passageway leading down to the Elephant Gate, which is currently used as an exit point from the fort.

Passageway inside the fort leading to the Hathi Pol (Elephant Gate).

Hathi Pol was built by Shah Jahan in 1632. It was meant to be exclusively used by elephants carrying the royalty. From this splendid gateway begins the renowned picture wall of Lahore Fort.

Continuing from the last post in which we started the tour of Moti Mosque of the Lahore Fort, today we visit the beautiful white marble domes of the mosque as well as the intricate internal supporting marble arches.

Three compartments of the front aisle, the central one, and those at the extreme ends are covered by domes, while the remaining compartments of both aisles have vaulting.

The central compartment of the near aisle contains a mihrab deeply recessed in the back wall within the outlines of a cuspid arch. Adjacent to it on the north stands a maimbar (pulpit) of marble.

A historically valuable article on the formation of the ‘dominian’ of Pakistan, 1947! And this article was published on 15th of August, 1947.

I seriously doubted that such old history is now so readily available. But blame this lazy skeptiscim to my under-estimation of Google! Google news archives is a great place to be looking and snapshots of history, right from the violent creation of our beautiful country to the accusations on W. Churchil and his political ‘gestures’ and what not. A valuable addition to the already impressive assets of Google!
Bravo. And God Bless

Courtesy: LIFE ETC

In the last history tour installment we finished off the Shish Mahal courtyard of the Lahore Fort and today we will be moving on to some of the seperate standing sturctures in the Fort, as opposed to the structures within quadrangles which we have visited in the previous posts. Today, we will visit two of these structures, namely Maktab Khana and Moti Mosque both of which lie is close proximity to each other.

Entrance to the Maktab Khana (Clerk’s House). It is a small cloistered court surrounded by arcades in which clerks use to sit, recording the names of visitors. The inscription outside tells that King Jahangir built Maktab Khana in 1618.
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