The Shalimar Gardens (also spelled Shalamar) are a Mughal garden complex beside Baghbanpura in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. The 17th-century gardens date from the period of the Mughal Empire and are now one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations. They sit next to the Grand Trunk Road, about five kilometres east of the Delhi Gate of the Walled City of Lahore.
Laid out as a Charbagh-style paradise garden, construction began in 1641 during the reign of the emperor Shah Jahan and was completed in 1642. The site was chosen for its stable water supply: Ali Mardan Khan oversaw most of the construction and had a long canal built to bring water to the gardens, and the project was managed by the noble Khalilullah Khan. The gardens are laid out as a rectangle on a north–south axis, in three terraces, each four to five metres higher than the one below: the uppermost, Bagh-e-Farah Baksh (“Bestower of Pleasure”), was the emperor’s garden; the lowest terrace was open to noblemen, and the highest was reserved for the emperor’s harem.
The Shalimar Gardens contain the most waterworks of any Mughal garden: 414 fountains discharge into wide marble pools, and the gardens have five water cascades, including the great marble cascade. During the Sikh period, much of the garden’s marble was pillaged for the Golden Temple and Ram Bagh Palace in Amritsar, and the annual Mela Chiraghan festival was held in the gardens until 1958. In 1981 the Shalimar Gardens were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, together with the Lahore Fort, as they embody Mughal garden design at the apogee of its development.
Sources
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shalimar_Gardens,_Lahore (Wikipedia, “Shalamar Gardens, Lahore”, accessed 7 November 2026).
See also: the profiles of Lahore-based singer Maanu and YouTuber Ducky Bhai on Wikipedia Pakistan.
