Hiram Minar

 

I have previously also posted a picture from Hiran Minaar, This is a tourist attraction about 30 mins. drive from Lahore. This is an example of the great Mughal Architecture. This resort was built by a Mughal ruler in honor of a pet "Deer".

Tomb

This is the tomb of one of the most powerful advisors and the most powerful inister of the Mughal court Asaf Khan, The Taj Mahal was built in honor of his Daughter. Sadly the building is crumbling and plants growing all over the walls because of lack of care and maintanance.

Shahi Majid

This is another one of the Badshahi Mosque Also known as the Shahi Masjid, Taken prom the main entrance this captures the whole courtyard and the mosque structure.

Closeup Badshahi Mosque

Another picture of the Badshahi Mosque taken from the courtyard.

Badshahi Mosque Entrance

This is the grand entrance leading into the courtyard of the Badshahi Masjid (Emporor's Mosque) , The whole entrance and a lot of the interior of the mosque is decorated with beautiful floral frescos. Built by Mughal Emperor Aurengzeb in 1673 The badshahi Masjid can accomodate 55,000 worshippers and is the second largest mosque in Pakistan.

Note: For some reason most of Pakistani's are facing blogger issues for several days, Once you open a blogger page, it does not refresh for several days, in essence I can not view the latest posts on most of the blogger based blogs most of the time. I have tried clearing my cache, histories and even flushing my DNS, It could be Blogger or it could be the ISP storing pages on its servers, and serving them stale, if any of you know a solution to such an issue please let me know.

Mughal Fountain

One of the hundreds of fountains that are located inside the Lahore Fort. Now defunct these fountains would have been beautiful in their time. The fountain is carved out of white marble used extensively in Mughal architecture.

Frescos

Like the other Mughal tombs, the walls and ceiling of Nur Jehan's tomb were also adorned with beautiful works of art from centuries back.

Studying by the grave

The grave of Nur Jehan and her daughter side by side, you can notice a guy studying in the background, I noticed several people studying in the area, and one person singing sufi music.

Entrance

This is the entrance to the tomb of Nur Jehan, there are four similar entrances on all sides of the Tomb.

ps. I will be going to my farm for the next 5-6 days for harvesting of wheat and will be putting blogger on auto mode for the first time, lets see how it goes, hope to see you all back soon with some pictures from rural Punjab.

Path

A wooded path leads to the tomb of Nur Jehan.

The Great Empress

This tomb is a short walk away from the Dilkusha Garden complex across a railway track, it is the tomb of Empress Nur Jehan, one of the most powerful women in Indian History, she is said to have ruled over Emperor Jehangir's heart, even though she was his 20th wife she was the favourite. She was the true power behind the Mughal throne. She also had the honor of being the only Empress whose name appeared on the coinage of that period.

Sarcophagus Caligraphy

The only thing intact in Asaf Khan's tomb is the marble sarcophagus with Arabic calligraphy & a plain brick floor.

Ruins Closeup

Closeup of Asaf Khan's tomb, you can see a small area of artwork that originally covered the whole building.

Asaf Khan

This tomb belongs to Asaf Khan who was the brother in law of the emperor and a noble in his court, He was also the father of Mumtaz Mahal in who's honor Emperor Shah Jahan erected the Taj Mahal. The tomb is part of the Dilkusha Garden complex where Emperor Jehangir is buried. Due to lack of funding this historical building is all but crumbled, built around the same time as Jehangir's tomb this building is in ruin compared to the Emperor's tomb.

The Door

Old doors are one of my favorite subjects to photograph, found this one at the Jehangir's Tomb.

Jehangir's Tomb Closeup

Here is a closeup of the art work on the exterior of Jehangir's tomb.

Dilkusha Garden

Emperor Jehangir is buried in a complex consisting of a huge Garden in the middle, his tomb to the right and the tomb of one of his closest advisers and brother-in-law Asaf Khan to the left, Asaf Khan was the father of Mumtaz Mahal in who's honor the Taj Mahal in Agra was built. This photograph is taken from the center part of the complex known as "Dilkusha Garden" and you can see the main gateway into the smaller area leading to Jehangir's Tomb.

Jehangir's Sarcophagus

Inside the burial chamber of Jehangir's Tomb, you can see beautiful art work on the walls and floor, all made in white marble. The sarcophagus of the Emperor is decorated in Arabic script with prayers and the 99 names of God .

Jehangir's Tomb Fresco

As you enter through the main entranceway you come into the corridor leading to the burial chambers, this corridor is intricately painted and has been preserved for centuries, the walls are adorned with soothing geometric and floral fresco well known in Mughal architecture.

Jehangir's Tomb Exterior

A closeup of the tomb's exterior, the main gateway in the center leads to the burial chamber.