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Forts

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Alongwith religious architecture, one finds simultaneous development in non-religious architecture. The most celebrated and scintillating specimen of these is the imperial fort at Lahore. The palace-fort alongwith its royal pavillions, is a beautiful example of pageantry and art for which Mughal era was famous. The fort was completed in three phases. It was built by Akbar in 1566. Akbar¹s son added another beautiful palace to it, which is now known as Jehangir¹s quadrangle, after his name. Jehangir¹s successors, Shah Jehan, brought to the fort his genius for building and his flair for magnificence. A number of Akbar¹s sandstone structures were swept away to make room for marble buildings of more appropriate style. This is best evidenced in the graceful Diwan-e-Khas or Hall of Audience. His exquisite Shish Mahal (palace of mirrors) has a marble dado, carved marble screen and is ornamented with mosaics of tiny convex mirrors of various colours set in arabesque. West of Shish Mahal stands famous Naulakha Pavilion, studded with 900,000 semiprecious stones. It is embellished with delicate and costly pietra-dura work.

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Other forts, emblematic of vigorous Muslim rule are Balahisar Fort at Peshawar, Rohtas Fort, 19 kilometres north-west of Jhelum, and the famous fort at Attock. The first of these was built by Babar in 16th century while the latter two were constructed by Sher Shah Suri and Akbar respectively. Dating back to the 16th century, the three forts are structural projects of immense strength. The Sohal gate, guarding the south-west wall of Rohtas Fort, is an illustration of a genius, who converted a feature built for strength into a remarkably graceful piece of architecture. Two other forts in this series are Sheikhupura and Hyderabad forts constructed by Jehangir in 17th century and Ghulam Shah Kalhora (a local ruler of Sind) in 18th century respectively.