Holiday in Lahore

About Lahore

Lahore is the cultural soul of Pakistan — a 2,000-year-old city that experienced its most magnificent era as the capital of the Mughal Empire and remains the culinary, artistic, and intellectual heart of the country to this day. With 13 million inhabitants, Lahore is Pakistan's second-largest city, but in the passion of its residents for food, poetry, music, and cricket, it is undoubtedly number one. The Mughal architecture of Lahore is as magnificent as that of Delhi and Agra: The Badshahi Mosque, built in 1673, was the largest mosque in the world for over 300 years and offers a sight with its vast courtyard, three white domes, and four minarets that leaves even secular visitors in awe. Right next to it is the Lahore Fort (UNESCO), a fortress that Mughal emperors expanded over centuries, leaving behind the Sheesh Mahal (Mirror Palace), a jewel whose walls, adorned with millions of tiny mirrors and semi-precious stones, turn candlelight into a fireworks display. The Shalimar Gardens (UNESCO), laid out in 1641 by Emperor Shah Jahan (the builder of the Taj Mahal), are a three-tiered paradise of water cascades, fountains, pavilions, and mango trees — a Mughal garden as it is described in textbooks, and at sunset, it possesses a quiet beauty that recalls past grandeur. But Lahore is not only alive with its history: The Food Street in the old town and the Gawalmandi neighborhoods are a frenzy of flavors. Lahore is considered the foodie capital of South Asia, and nowhere are the portions larger, the spices more intense, and the passion for good food more pronounced. The Wagah border ceremony in the evening, where Pakistani and Indian soldiers perform a choreographed, theatrical ceremony that lies somewhere between a military parade and Bollywood dance, is an experience unique to this place — thousands of cheering spectators on both sides of the border, united in the competition for the loudest cheers.