Lahore Fort

The Lahore Fort (Punjabi: شاہی قلعہ, romanised: Śā'ī Qilā; Urdu: شاہی قلعہ, romanised: Śāhī Qil'ā; lit. 'Royal Fort') is a citadel in the walled interior of Lahore in Punjab, Pakistan. The fortress is located at the northern end of the Walled City and is spread over an area greater than 20 hectares (49 acres). It contains 21 notable monuments, some of which date to the era of Emperor Akbar. The Lahore Fort is notable for having been almost entirely rebuilt in the 17th century, when the Mughal Empire was at the height of its splendour and opulence.

Though the site of the present fort has been inhabited for millennia, the first record of a fortified structure at the site was that of an 11th-century mudbrick fort. The foundations of the modern fort was laid in 1566 ,during the reign of Emperor Akbar, in a syncretic architectural style that featured both Islamic and Hindu motifs. Additions from the Shah Jahan period are characterised by marble with inlaid Persian floral designs, while the fort's grand Alamgiri Gate was constructed by the last of the great Mughal emperors, Aurangzeb, and faces the Badshahi Mosque.

After the fall of the Mughal Empire, Lahore Fort was used as the residence of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh Empire. The Sikhs made several additions to the fort. It then passed to the control of the East India Company after they annexed Punjab following their victory over the Sikhs at the Battle of Gujrat in February 1849. In 1981, the fort was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its "outstanding repertoire" of Mughal monuments dating from the era when the empire was at its artistic and aesthetic zenith.