The cultural/historical hub know as Androon Lahore

I have heard a lot about androon Lahore or the walled city as it is famously known. However, I couldn’t find a chance to explore it to its fullest. Therefore, I asked a friend to help me out with this one day walk of the walled city. We went to Delhi gate early in the morning. Roads were quite but once we entered we noticed that every hotel that serves breakfast is overwhelmingly crowded. My friend told me that Lahoris take their food very seriously. In order to respect this Lahori tradition we also went to one such eatery. We order nihari a local cuisine consisting of slow-cooked meat mainly shank meat of beef or lamb and mutton, goat meat and chicken, along with bone marrow. It was so delicious that I knew why Lahoris are crazy about their food.
after eating breakfast we went to visit Shahi Hamam, royal baths built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. It was restored in 2013-2015. This is most probably the last time anyone will see me saying that one of my favorite place in Lahore is royal bath. A person can’t walk away without praising the beautiful interior, architecture and textures on the wall. There are small screens in front of every room giving a graphic/written description about the history of this place. After exploring the shahi hamam we went to the Instagram famous wazir khan mosque. I doubt if there is a single Lahori Instagrammer who didn’t have a picture of this mosque on his account and when I entered my first step in that mosque I got to know why do people love it os much. The detailed calligraphy and Mughal style art/texture on its walls make you think that how a mosque built in the 17th century has such amazing detailed and architectural finesse to it. Inside the mosque there is a beautiful chandelier. You can also go to the minarets and get an amazing view of the mosque and the surrounding area.
I didn’t want to leave the mosque yet but my friend told me that there is a lot more to come. So I believed him and we crossed Kashmiri bazar to reach sunheri mosque. It is a small golden mosque that stands its own in front of giant historical masterpieces around it. What I loved about this mosque is the small fountain sitting right in the middle of it. Pigeons were taking bathe in it and singing praises to their lord.
If you want to know about the culture and traditions of Lahore. This is the area to look for them. to understand it a little better we decide to go to badshahi mosque and shahi qilla. Mughal dynasty believed in inter-religion harmony and you can see that when you reach badshahi mosque, as there is a gurudwara(Sikhs religious place) right in front of it. And if you look a bit further you can see Minar e Pakistan. In few steps, you can actually see the complete journey of this country and monuments representing that journey. Whenever I think of Androon Lahore, I think of amazing food, culture, art and love.

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