Wazir Khan Mosque – Lahore

It took us a an hour of navigating through the unruly traffic of Lahore to get to the old city. This was ostensibly a public holiday – the Christmas day and yet there was so much traffic. We found a newly built parking plaza to park the car. The plaza is oddly located among old buildings and represented the changing nature of Lahore’s spatial and commercial realities.

Walking through the old Sarafa bazaar on the cobbled alleys and lanes packed with Eid shoppers we reached the Wazir Khan mosque  and ended up in a sanctuary of peace and beauty.

My companion, a soulful architect also became alive and cheerful.

We spent hours there: first offering the Asar prayers with a small gathering, sitting in the vast courtyard and then wading through the sheer beauty of the place.

This Mosque was built by a seventeenth century Mughal Governor of Lahore. More details can be found here. Some amazing photographs can be found here.

Recent conservation efforts have saved some parts of the timeless architecture. This monument remains one of my favourite places to visit each time I am in Lahore..