Lahore
Pakistan's cultural capital and Mughal showpiece
Lahore is the soul of Pakistan, a historic city of more than fourteen million in the fertile plains of Punjab, renowned for its Mughal monuments, its food, and its gardens. Where Karachi trades, Lahore feasts and recites poetry: it is the country's cultural and intellectual heart, a place of grand mosques and forts, lively bazaars, and a celebrated culinary scene. The saying goes that one who has not seen Lahore has not been born.
The city lies on the flat alluvial plain of Punjab near the Ravi River, which once flowed beside its walls before shifting its course, in the broad, fertile land between the rivers of the Indus basin. Its climate runs to scorching, dusty summers and cool winters, with the monsoon bringing relief and occasional flooding from July. The old walled city, dense and labyrinthine, still huddles around the Lahore Fort and the great Badshahi Mosque.
An ancient settlement, Lahore flowered under the Mughals from the sixteenth century, when emperors made it a capital and adorned it with the fort, the Shalimar Gardens, and the colossal Badshahi Mosque. It later served as the seat of the Sikh empire under Ranjit Singh and a major center of British Punjab, where the demand for Pakistan was formally adopted in 1940. Today Lahore is the capital of Punjab province, a hub of education, film, and industry, and the custodian of the nation's heritage.