Rising in red sandstone above the old city of Lahore, the Badshahi Mosque is one of the great monuments of the Mughal empire and a symbol of Pakistan. Its name means imperial, and for much of its history it was among the largest mosques in the world. Completed in 1673, it is the grand climax of Mughal mosque building.
An imperial mosque
The mosque was commissioned by the emperor Aurangzeb, the last of the great Mughal rulers, and finished in 1673. It was designed to project the power and piety of an empire that then stretched across much of South Asia. A monumental gateway opens onto a courtyard of vast proportions, able to hold tens of thousands of worshippers, with the prayer hall closing the western, Qibla side. Everything about it, from its scale to its symmetry, speaks the confident language of imperial Mughal design. Raised opposite the gates of the Lahore Fort, it formed part of a grand royal ensemble, a mosque meant to be seen as much as prayed in, and to stand for generations as a mark of the dynasty that built it.
Red sandstone and white marble
The building's beauty lies in its materials and balance. Its walls and gateway are faced in warm red sandstone, carved and inlaid with marble, while three swelling bulbous domes of white marble crown the prayer hall. Slender minarets of red sandstone stand at the corners of the courtyard. This interplay of red and white, of massive walls and delicate carved detail, is the hallmark of Mughal architecture, a tradition that would later inspire monuments as far away as the modern Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi. You can see where it fits among the world's traditions in Mosque architecture styles around the world.
A survivor of history
The Badshahi Mosque has lived through turbulent times. Under later occupation of Lahore it was used as a garrison and its courtyard as a military store, and it suffered damage before being restored and returned to worship. Careful repairs through the twentieth century brought back its dignity, and today it stands proudly beside the tomb of the poet Muhammad Iqbal and the historic Lahore Fort, at the ceremonial heart of the city. Its long story is part of the wider short history of mosques.
Among the world's great mosques
The Badshahi Mosque belongs to a family of landmarks that spans continents and centuries, gathered in our pillar on Great mosques of the world. Compared with the striped arches of the Great Mosque of Cordoba (Mezquita) or the earthen towers of the Great Mosque of Djenne, Mali, it shows yet another way that Muslims have expressed the same devotion in stone. Terms such as Qibla, mihrab and minbar are explained in the Glossary.
Visiting
The Badshahi Mosque welcomes respectful visitors outside prayer times, with modest dress and shoes removed before entering the marble courtyard; the view of its domes at sunset is one of the sights of Lahore. Pakistan is home to many remarkable mosques, historic and modern: explore them in our directory for Pakistan, or find places to pray worldwide through the the interactive map and the full list of find mosques.