page_title: Walled City of Lahore
section_title: Sikh period
hierarchical_section_title: Walled City of Lahore / History / Sikh period
caption_attribution_description: English: Gurudwara Arjun Ram This is a photo of a monument in Pakistan identified as the L-U-7
context_page_description: The Walled City of Lahore, also known as Old City, forms the historic core of Lahore, Pakistan. The city was established around 1000 CE in the western half of the Walled City, which was fortified by a mud wall during the medieval era.
  The Walled City rose in prominence after being selected as the Mughal capital, which resulted in construction of the Lahore Fort - now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as the city's new reinforced walls. The Walled City was bestowed with numerous monuments during the Mughal era, with some of Lahore's most iconic structures being located in the Walled City, such as the lavishly decorated Wazir Khan Mosque, the massive Badshahi Mosque, and the Shahi Hammam. Under Sikh rule, the city was again selected as capital, and the Walled City again rose in prominence with numerous religious buildings built in the Walled City at the time, including the Samadhi of Ranjit Singh, and the Gurdwara Janam Asthan Guru Ram Das.
  The Walled City today remains the cultural heart of Lahore, and is home to many of its tourist attractions.
context_section_description: Following the collapse of Mughal rule, Lahore ceased to function as an imperial city. Trade abruptly stopped, and large areas of the city's suburbs were abandoned. By 1780, the city had fallen under the rule of small Sikh states known as Misls. The city and its revenues were partitioned among 3 Sikh chiefs - Gujjar Singh, Lahna Singh, and Sobha Singh. Instability during the Misl period contributed to the rise of nearby Amritsar as a commercial centre. The city's population rapidly declined during this era, and the entire population of the city was said to live within the confines of the Walled City, with numerous citadels and suburbs depopulated.
  Instability hindered Lahore's progress until the arrival of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who in 1799 made Lahore the Sikhs' administrative capital for the next 50 years, ruling from the Old City's Lahore Fort. Though the city's urban fabric lay in ruins by 1799, Sikh reconstruction from this era were based upon Mughal precedent. In 1812, they refurbished the city's defenses and added a second circuit of walls around the city that largely followed the outline of walls from the Akbari period. Numerous Mughal monuments were damaged, desecrated, or destroyed during this period.
  Ranjit Singh and his descendant bestowed the Walled City with religious monuments such as the Gurdwara Dera Sahib, Gurdwara Janam Asthan Guru Ram Das, and Samadhi of Ranjit Singh, and numerous Hindu temples, as well as secular buildings such as the Haveli of Nau Nihal Singh, and Hazuri Bagh Baradari. They also refurbished the nearby Shalimar Gardens, while numerous gardens were laid outside the city walls by Sikh nobles.
  By the end of Sikh rule, most of Lahore's massive Mughal haveli compounds had been occupied by settlers. New neighbourhoods occasionally grew up entirely within the confines of an old Mughal haveli, such as the Mohallah Pathran Wali, which grew within the ruins of a haveli of the same name that was built by Mian Khan. By 1831, all Mughal havelis in the Walled City had been encroached upon by the surrounding neighbourhood, leading to the modern-day absence of any Mughal havelis in Lahore.
caption: The Gurdwara Janam Asthan Guru Ram Das was built within the Walled City at the birthplace and childhood home of Guru Ram Das, the 4th Guru of Sikhism.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 60D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Photoshop Express 5.4.2.51", "Image DateTime": "2016:07:11 12:17:59", "Image Artist": "Picasa", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "238", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "982", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "12832", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:12:30 15:22:07", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:12:30 15:22:07", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "9", "EXIF ApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1/3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1728", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2592", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "97379/34", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "331079/114", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "a89f41f10b8f7b9dd5aa498f4a825116", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "3711502192", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[18, 135, 0, 0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF-S18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "000004d7f7"}