Shalimar Garden
Three miles north-east of Lahore is the renowned and delightful garden of Shah Jahan, the Shalimar, or House of Joy, most appropriately called the Versailles of the Panjab. It is a magnificent of Moghal grandeur, in form an ablong parabllelogram, surrounded bya high wall of brick work, 1,200 paces in length and 800 in breadth, with three successive terraces, raised one above the level of the other by a height of 12 or 15 feet, the whole area of the gardencovering 80 acres more or less. A canal, brought from a great distance, intersects this beautiful garden and discharges itself in the middle terrace into a large marble basin ;
from this basin and from the canal rise 450 fountains which throw up water that is subsequently received into marble tanks, the profuse discharge of water in this way serving to render the atmosphere deliciously cool and pleasant.
The garden is well stocked with magnificent fruit trees and flowering shrubs. There are beautiful groves of lemon andpomegranate trees. The avenues of oranges are laden with such an abundance of large fruit, in their season, that the branches seem ready to break under the weight.
The fine tall mango trees are in flourishing condition, and yield delicious fruit, which is hawked for sale in the streets of Lahore. As aptly remarked by a recent traveler, outside all is glare and dust ; within all is green foliage, white marble cool reservoir, and rippling cascade. Garden Scenes:-
The gardens, or the royal pleasure grounds of Shalimar, were laid out in the sixth year of Shah Jahan reign, or in 1634 A.D., after the plan of the royal gardens in Kashmir, by orders of the Emperor, under the management of Khalilulla Khan.
The canal, or Hasli, to irrigate the gardens was brought from Madhupur, at the expense of two lakhs of rupees. It was the combined work of Ali Mardan Khan, the great canal engineer, and Mulla Ala-ul-Mulk. The cost of the gardens and the buildings attached to it was six lakhs of rupees, and they were laid and constructed in one year, five months, and four days. Mulla Abdul Hamid, Lahori, in his excellent work the Badshahnama, gives the following interesting particulars of the first State visit of the Emperor to these gardens. It having been represented to His Majesty that the gardens, the management of which had been entrusted to Khalilullah Khan, had been finished, the royal astrologers were ordered to fix an auspicious hour for the visit of the augst sovereign.
