Field guides / Punjab / Wazir Khan's Hammam
Field guide · Heritage
Wazir Khan's Hammam
Wazir Khans Hammam is situated in side Dehli Gate.
The Shahi Hammam is a Persian-style bathhouse built in 1635, just inside Delhi Gate, by Hakim Ilm-ud-din Ansari — a physician from Chiniot who rose to be chief physician at Shah Jahan's court and took the title Wazir Khan. It has twenty-one interconnected rooms and offered hot, warm and cold baths and steam rooms to citizens and travellers entering the city.
Why go
- ✦The Mughal bathhouse inside Delhi Gate
- ✦Built by Sheikh Ilm-ud-din Ansari, titled Wazir Khan
- ✦By the same patron as the Wazir Khan Mosque
- ✦Hemmed in by shops on three sides, with the gate on the fourth
History
The same patron built the Wazir Khan Mosque deeper inside the Walled City. The hammam's income was endowed to maintain that mosque. Over the centuries the building was subdivided, used as a dispensary and a school, and its frescoes were buried under whitewash. Between 2013 and 2015 the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the Walled City of Lahore Authority conserved it, with funding from the government of Norway.
Historical Significance
The conservation received a UNESCO Award of Merit in 2016, cited for its high degree of technical proficiency. It is the only Mughal bathhouse of its kind surviving in Pakistan.
Architecture
The hammam is surrounded by shops on its north, south and west, with Delhi Gate itself closing the eastern side.
Why Visit
The first monument you meet coming through Delhi Gate, and one of the very few Mughal buildings in Lahore you can see restored to something close to its intended state.
Interesting Facts
- Twenty-one interconnected rooms, with hot, warm and cold baths and steam chambers
- Its builder was Shah Jahan's chief physician, from Chiniot
- Restored 2013–2015 by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture with Norwegian funding
- The restoration won a UNESCO Award of Merit in 2016
Planning tip
Best Time to Visit, October to March. Lahore's summer is fierce and the Walled City offers little shade; December and January can be heavily smog-bound.
Getting there, All within Lahore. The Walled City monuments — the gates, Mariam Zamani, Wazir Khan's Baradari and Hammam — sit close enough to walk between; Shahdara, Baghbanpura and Mughalpura are a short drive out.
Allow, Thirty minutes to an hour at each; a full day for the Walled City circuit.
What to Do
Make Wazir Khan's Hammam Part of a Trip
GreenPak resorts within reach, and the journeys that travel this region.
Nearby
Straight-line distance from Wazir Khan's Hammam, within 30 km.
