TOURISM

Lahore (help·info) (Punjabi: لہور, Urdu: لاہور pronounced [lahor]) is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and is the second largest city in Pakistan after Karachi. It is often called the Garden of Mughals because of its Mughal heritage. It is located near the Ravi River, close to the Pakistan-India border. Mughal structures such as the Badshahi Mosque, the Data Durbar Complex, the Lahore Fort, Shalimar Gardens, and the mausolea of Jehangir and Nur Jehan are popular tourist spots in the city. Lahore is also home to many British colonial structures built in the Indo-Gothic style, such as the Lahore High Court, the General Post Office (GPO), and many older universities.
Punjabi and Urdu are the native languages of the province and are the most widely-spoken languages in Lahore and rural areas. Urdu and English, however, are becoming more popular with younger people since they are officially supported, whereas Punjabi has no official patronage. Many Punjabi speakers in Lahore are known as Lahori Punjabi due to their use of a mixture of Punjabi and colloquial Urdu. According to the 1998 census, Lahore's population was nearly 7 million. Mid-2006 government estimates now put the population at approximately 10 million. This makes Lahore the second largest city in Pakistan, fifth largest city in South Asia and the 26th largest city in the world.

Ptolemy, the celebrated astronomer and geographer, mentions in his Geographia a city called Labokla situated on the route between the Indus River and Palibothra, or Pataliputra (Patna), in a tract of country called Kasperia (Kashmir), described as extending along the rivers Bidastes or Vitasta (Jhelum), Sandabal or Chandra Bhaga (Chenab), and Adris or Iravati (Ravi). This city may be ancient Lahore.[citation needed]
A legend, based on Hindu oral traditions, states that Lahore was named after Lava, son of the Hindu god Rama, who supposedly founded the city. To this day, the Lahore Fort has a vacant temple dedicated to Lava (also pronounced Loh, hence "Loh-awar" or The Fort of Loh).
The oldest authentic document about Lahore was written anonymously in 982 and is called Hudud-i-Alam. It was translated into English by Vladimir Fedorovich Minorsky and published in Lahore in 1927. In this document, Lahore is referred to as a small shahr (city) with "impressive temples, large markets and huge orchards." It refers to "two major markets around which dwellings exist," and it also mentions "the mud walls that enclose these two dwellings to make it one." The original document is currently held in the British Museum. Lahore was called by different names throughout history, and to date there is no conclusive evidence as to when it was founded; some historians trace the history of the city as far back as 4000 years ago.

Few references to Lahore exist for times before its capture by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni in the eleventh century. In 1021, Mahmud appointed Malik Ayaz to the throne and made Lahore the capital of the Ghaznavid Empire. The sultan took Lahore after a long siege and battle in which the city was torched and depopulated. As the first Muslim ruler of Lahore, Ayaz rebuilt and repopulated the city. He added many important features, such as city gates and a masonry fort, built in 1037-1040 on the ruins of the previous one, which had been demolished in the fighting (as recorded by Munshi Sujan Rae Bhandari, author of the Khulasatut Tawarikh in 1695-96).[citation needed] The present Lahore Fort stands on the same location. Under his rule, the city became a cultural and academic center, renowned for poetry. The tomb of Malik Ayaz can still be seen in the Rang Mahal commercial area of town.
After the fall of the Ghaznavid Empire, Lahore was ruled by various Muslim dynasties known as the Delhi Sultanate, including the Khiljis, Tughlaqs, Sayyid, Lodhis and Suris. When Sultan Qutb-ud-din Aybak was crowned here in 1206, he became the first Muslim sultan of the Indian subcontinent[citation needed]. It was not until 1524 that Lahore became part of the Mughal Empire.

From 1524 to 1752, Lahore was part of the Mughal Empire, and from 1584 to 1598, under the emperors Akbar and Jahangir, the city served as its capital. Lahore reached a peak of architectural glory during the rule of the Mughals, many of whose buildings and gardens have survived the ravages of time. Lahore's reputation for beauty fascinated the English poet John Milton, who wrote "Agra and Lahore, the Seat of the Great Mughal" in 1670. During this time, the massive Lahore Fort was built. A few buildings within the fort were added by Akbar's son, Mughal emperor Jahangir, who is buried in the city. Jahangir's son, Shah Jahan, was born in Lahore. He, like his father, extended the Lahore Fort and built many other structures in the city, including the Shalimar Gardens. The last of the great Mughals, Aurangzeb, who ruled from 1658 to 1707, built the city's most famous monuments, the Badshahi Masjid and the Alamgiri Gate next to the Lahore Fort. This area attracts many tourists and is used by the modern-day government of Pakistan for public speeches and social events.
During the 18th century, as Mughal power dwindled, Lahore was often invaded, and government authority was lacking. The great Punjabi poet Baba Waris Shah said of the situation, "khada peeta wahy da, baqi ahmad shahy da"—"we have nothing with us except what we eat and wear, all other things are for [Afgani invader] Ahmad Shah Abdali." Ahmad Shah invaded the remnants of the Mughal Empire, consolidating control over the Punjab and Kashmir regions.
The 1740s were years of chaos, and the city had nine different governors between 1745 and 1756. Invasions and chaos in local government allowed bands of warring Sikhs to gain control in some areas. In 1799, the 12 Sikh Misls joined into one to form a sovereign Sikh state ruled by Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Ranjit Singh made Lahore his capital and was able to expand the kingdom to include Jammu and Kashmir while keeping the British from expanding across the Sultege for more then 40 years. After his death in 1839 the internecine fighting between the Sikhs and several rapid forfeitures of territory by his sons, along with the intrigues of the Dogras and two Anglo-Sikh wars, eventually led to British control of the Lahore Darbar ten years later. For the British, Punjab was a frontier province, because Lahore had boundaries with Afghanistan and Persia. Therefore, the Punjabis, unlike the Bengalis and the Sindhis, were not allowed to use their mother tongue as an official language. It was the British who first introduced Urdu as an official language in Punjab, including Lahore, allegedly due to a fear of Punjabi nationalism. Under British rule (1849-1947), colonial architecture in Lahore combined Mughal, Gothic and Victorian styles. The GPO and YMCA buildings in Lahore commemorated the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria, an event marked by the construction of clock towers and monuments all over India. Other important British buildings included the High Court, the Government College University, the museums, the National College of Arts, Montgomery Hall, Tollinton Market, the University of the Punjab (Old Campus) and the Provincial Assembly. Even today, Mall Road retains a variety of Gothic and Victorian style buildings built during the British Raj. At one end of The Mall stands the university, one of the most prestiguous universities of Pakistan. The British also launched the city's first horse-racing club in 1924, starting a tradition that continues today at the Lahore Race Club.

Lahore played a special role in the independence movements of both Bharat (India) and Pakistan. The 1929 Congress session was held at Lahore. In this Congress, the Declaration of the Independence of India was moved by Pandit Nehru and passed unanimously at midnight on 31 December 1929. On this occasion, the contemporary tricolour of India (with a chakra at its centre) was hoisted as a national flag, and thousands of people saluted it.
Lahore prison was used by the British to detain revolutionary freedom fighters. Noted freedom fighter Jatin Das died in Lahore prison after fasting for 63 days in protest of British treatment of political prisoners. One of the greatest martyrs in the history of Indian independence, Shaheed Sardar Bhagat Singh, was hanged there.
The most important session of the All India Muslim League (later the Pakistan Muslim League), demanding the creation of Pakistan, was held in Lahore in 1940. Muslims under the leadership of Quaid-e-Azam (Muhammad Ali Jinnah) demanded a separate homeland for Muslims of India in a document known as the Pakistan Resolution or the Lahore Resolution. It was during this session that Jinnah, the leader of the league, publicly proposed the Two-Nation Theory for the first time.

On partition, Lahore was made capital of Punjab province in the new state of Pakistan. Almost immediately, large scale riots broke out between Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus, causing many deaths as well as damage to historic monuments—including the Lahore Fort, Badshahi mosque and other colonial buildings. Among all cities of India, Lahore suffered the greatest loss due to the Partition of Punjab in 1947. It also drastically altered the demographics of the city and shifted the economic advantage from the Hindus to the Muslims. Meanwhile, the opposite situation occurred in Amritsar, which is a mere 30 miles away from Lahore, although the urban sprawl of Lahore and Amritsar are less that 15 miles apart.
With United Nations assistance, the government was able to re-build Lahore, and most scars of the communal violence of Partition were erased. Less than 20 years later, however, Lahore once again became a battleground when the Indian army made a failed attempt to capture the city, despite surrounding the city o 3 sides.
The second Islamic Summit Conference was held in the city. In 1996 the International Cricket Council Cricket World Cup final match was held at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, and Lahore along with Colombo is to host the semi finals of the 2011 Cricket World Cup.
Due to its long history, Lahore's architecture, culture, demographics and language have been influenced by the Persians, the Mongols, the Afghans, the Sikhs, the Hindus and the British, all of whom have controlled the city at one point or another.

As of 2005, the city's gross domestic product (GDP) by purchasing power parity (PPP) was estimated at $28 billion with an average growth rate of 5.9 percent. Thus the contribution of Lahore to the national economy comes up to 6%.[citation needed] Central to Lahore's economy is the Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE), Pakistan's second largest stock exchange. Lahore has offices of several Pakistani government corporations including the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and Water and Sewage Authority (WASA). Food and restaurant businesses remain open all night. The shopping markets are usually open late into the night.[citation needed] Lahore is the second largest financial hub of Pakistan and has industrial areas including Kot Lakhpat and the new Sundar Industrial Estate (near Raiwand).
Lahore's economic strength relies on the fact that it is the biggest city of Pakistan's most populous province. It is also the most advanced in terms of infrastructure, having extensive and relatively well developed road links to all major cities in Punjab and NWFP, a rail link with India and the province's biggest International airport. It also has the most developed communcations infrastructure in the province, which includes a wide network of fiber optic telephone and cable lines, GSM mobile network, IPP and WiMax. It has the most developed education and health sectors as well, making it the economic, political and educational hub of the province.

Gulberg Main Boulevard, which has some of Lahore's largest and finest shopping centres
‎ As Lahore expands, former residential areas are being turned into commercial centres, and the suburban population is constantly moving outwards. This has resulted in the development of the Liberty Market, MM Alam Road, the new Jail Road (which has some of the largest office buildings in Lahore), and the Main Boulevard.[citation needed]

Monument at Liberty Chowk, Main Boulevard, Gulberg

Lahore City Centre
The suburban population's move from commercial areas to less busy areas supports a thriving construction industry and several large housing projects including Bahria Town, Lake City, Sukh Chayn Gardens, Eden Villas, and a project by the Dhabi Group, a joint Pakistan-UAE partnership, to construct a new city on the outskirts of Lahore.[citation needed]
Lahore is famous as the hub of hand-made carpet manufacturing in Pakistan. At present, hand-knitted carpets produced in and around Lahore are among Pakistan's leading export products, and their manufacturing is the second-largest cottage and small industry. Lahore-based carpet exports make up nearly 85 percent of all carpet exports from Pakistan.[citation needed] Craftsmen in Lahore produce almost every type of handmade carpet using popular motifs such as medallions, paisleys, traceries, and geometric designs. The Lahore Design Centre at the Punjab Small Industries Corporation maintains a separate section of carpet designing to experiment with new designs. Lahore is famous for single-wefted designs in Turkoman and Caucasian style and double-wefted Mughal types.
Lahore's economic importance depends on many government institutes and international companies headquartered in the city, including WorldCALL Telecom Group, Pakistan Railways, Pakistan Cricket Board, Punjab University, NCA, Bata shoes, Haier, Wateen Telecom, Warid Telecom, Honda, Reebok, Daewoo, Nestle, Audi, Coca Cola, Tetra Pak, Monsanto, Delaval, Metro Cash & Carry, Mr Cod, Porsche and Rolls Royce.[citation needed]. The fact these companies have settled major operations and accounted for almost half of the Foreign Direct Investment coming into Pakistan reflects Lahore's relatively calm social environment, infrastructure and sophisticated consumer market.