Badshahi Mosque

Badshahi (King's) mosque,
Lahore, Pakistan.


Badshahi mosque was built by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir in 1673-1674 AD. Muzafar Hussain Sarmad, known as Fidai Khan Koka, foster brother of Aurengzeb (governor of Lahore) supervised its construction and it took 3 years to complete it. The outer expression of the mosque is bolt vast like the character of its owner. On the contrary the interior is delightful and highly refined with rich embellishments with stone carving, marble inlay and stucco tracery. Walls in their core are built in small kiln bricks laid in kankar lime mortar, while most of the exterior and domes are veneered with red sand stone and white marble from India. Variegated marble, Sang-e-Abri has been used to finish plinth and floor of the prayer chamber. Mosque is square in plan (567’-0”x567’-0”. 60,000 people can offer prayers in the mosque at a time.