Echoes of an Empire Linger on in Lahore

Stranded in the middle of a busy intersection in downtown Lahore, where rickshaws and buses with men hanging off the back constantly jostle with cars for a piece of the road, the cast-iron-and-wood cannon, Zamzama , still looks ready for battle.

The 232-year-old cannon changed hands among Afghan tribal chiefs, Sikh war lords and British artillerymen before coming to rest on the green roundabout.

It is not the cannon’s eventful history that makes it famous, however. The credit for this goes to Rudyard Kipling, who chose the cannon as the starting point for his novel “Kim.”

The book opens with a line describing Zamzama as “a fire-eating dragon” that “is always first of the conquerors’ loot.”

In a sense, “Kim” is partly an ode to Lahore, which Kipling fell in love with during his seven-year career at the Civil & Military Gazette newspaper in the 1880s, when his father served as curator of the Lahore Museum.

Set in the fertile plains of Pakistan’s portion of the Punjab, Lahore shares a common history and heritage with India and particularly its capital city, Delhi. But Lahore could be Delhi without the hassles: fewer beggars, panhandlers, money changers, fortune tellers and ear-cleaners.

“Kim’s Gun,” as Zamzama is now called, also is a good place to begin a walking tour of Lahore, once a centerpiece of the Moghul empire and still regarded as one of the subcontinent’s most beautiful cities.

Although it may no longer enjoy the title of “Paris of the Orient,” the former playground for the Moghul empire still boasts plenty of historic sites, a decent cultural schedule and enough interesting neighborhoods to keep a visitor busy for weeks.

Most of Lahore is best viewed on foot, although its roads are packed with donkey carts, rickshaws, motorcycles, horse-drawn carriages and people.

The cannon stands between the Lahore Museum and the University of Punjab.

The 17-gallery museum offers a fascinating collection of works from 2,400-year-old Buddhist sculptures to 19th-Century miniature paintings.

Upstairs, a photographic survey records the bloody battle that led to the creation of Pakistan in 1947.

The handsome red-brick museum, topped by a gorgeous dome, has not changed much since the British left Lahore. Even the fire extinguishers are veritable antiques left from the period of British rule.

Across the street is Punjab University’s downtown campus, a complex of red-brick buildings worth walking through to reach Anarkali Bazaar, a crowded shopping area full of colorful clothing and craft stores.

North of Anarkali is the Old City, a labyrinth of winding streets lined with endless bazaars, narrow houses and even brick barns full of livestock. The neighborhood is so battered that it looks as if it will collapse at any minute.

Horse-and-buggies compete with cars and mechanical rickshaws. Children play barefoot in the streets and run up to strangers to shake their hands and ask, “Which country?”

Above crowded streets fly seemingly unattended kites. Open-air restaurants serve hot, spicy food on soot-encrusted tables with sugar-loaded soft drinks or milk-sugar tea.

Entire streets sell just a single type of product: copperware on one street, dishes on another; spices, pharmaceuticals, shoes, hats and carpets.

On the northern edge of the Old City are three of Pakistan’s most beloved monuments: the Badshahi Mosque, the Old Fort and Minar-e-Pakistan. Entrances to the enormous mosque and fort face each other like competitors--one celebrating religion, the other war.

The imposing 314-year-old mosque, built of red sandstone, has a gigantic courtyard with a marble fountain in the center. The four minarets that anchor the corners, each with 204 steps, are sometimes open and offer excellent views of the city.

The mosque is a legacy of the reign of the Moghul leader Aurangzeb, an Islamic fundamentalist who cruelly imprisoned his father, Shah Jahan, for seven years in the Red Fort in Agra, India, where Jahan watched the construction of his greatest creation--the Taj Mahal--from a jail cell.

Next to the mosque is the Tomb of Allama Muhammad Iqbal. The unimpressive little structure is dedicated to the poet and writer who argued for the creation of an Islamic state.

More engaging is the Sikh marble pavilion, Hazuri Bagh Baradari, a graceful and elegant structure built between the fort and mosque by Ranjit Singh in 1818.

Nothing quite prepares you for the Old Fort, however. The sprawling complex has gone through five transformations, three while under the control of the Moghuls, then two more while held by the Sikhs and, later, the British.

The fort is broken up into three Moghul courts filled with gates, apartments, fountains, parks, elephant steps, open-air halls and two museums.

Little restoration has been done on the fort. Akbar met his subjects from a balcony in the Diwan-i-Aam (Hall of Public Audiences) that has deteriorated so much that a government guidebook admits the area “looks like an outhouse.” That’s amusing, but a bit much for one of the country’s leading tourist sites.

Outside the fort’s gate is the ornate, gilt-domed tomb of Ranjit Singh, and more of the Old City. To the north stands the Minar-e-Pakistan, an unattractive tower commemorating the country’s founding.

More intriguing is the Wazir Khan mosque, full of elaborate and colorful calligraphy only a few blocks away from the fort in the Old City.

The city’s other two widely heralded sites are Jehangir’s Tomb and Shalimar Gardens, both far from central Lahore.

Built for the man who ruled India in the early 1600s, the tomb sits on spacious and well-kept grounds across the Ravi River from Lahore.

The imposing tomb shares the area with two other tombs--one for Jehangir’s wife, Nur Jahan, the other for her brother, Asaf Khan.

Designed by the Moghuls with a strong sense of symmetry and beauty, Shalimar Gardens showed significant signs of wear on my last visit, but it is still worth a trip.

Much prettier is Jinnah’s Garden, a botanical garden boasting the most beautiful library in the country.

After a few days of walking, visitors may want to check out some of the local shops. Check the mall for shops selling crafts--carpets, batiks, wooden boxes, wall hangings and needlepoint. Try Nicholson Road for one of the largest carpet markets in Pakistan. Look at Gulberg Market, southwest of downtown, for Western goods and pricey--by Pakistani standards--clothing.

Pakistan has little nightlife to offer, except for the occasional films, plays and poetry readings. Drinking is forbidden except at international hotels, and then only in rooms.

As for accommodations, Lahore has two international-class hotels in the $45 to $150 range, the Pearl Continental and Hilton International. More moderate, $40 or less, are the British Raj remnant, Faletti’s (the city’s most charming hotel), the International, Ambassador, Amer and Indus. Each of these hotels is on or near the mall.

If you are planning to visit India, you can easily combine that with a trip to Pakistan. The advantage of flying into Delhi is that Lahore, Pakistan’s major cultural and historical center, is only a 40-minute, $40 plane ride away.

Lahore works as a good starting point from which to begin a tour of the country’s major areas of interest, such as Peshawar, Swat Valley, Chitral and the Karakoram Highway.

Direct flights into the country usually arrive in Karachi, a relatively new city that has suffered from constant ethnic unrest and without much to offer in the way of colorful markets or historical sites.

Western women should dress modestly to avoid problems and might even consider buying a shalwar kameez , a loose-fitting garment as comfortable as pajamas, upon arrival in Pakistan. Considering the temperatures, which hit 120 degrees in May, and the frowns that a pair of shorts usually elicit, men may want to buy a shalwar kameez , too.

Air travel between Pakistani cities is rarely more than $20. Even on short notice, seats are nearly always available. Flights to the northern cities of Gilgit and Skardu (home of K-2, the world’s second-highest mountain) cost about $10 one way.

On a short trip to the country, travelers can visit Karachi and Islamabad, a city of straight, clean streets and expensive homes not unlike the kind seen in an upscale Southern California neighborhood.

Both cities have museums and a handful of interesting sites, including the ancient ruins of Moenjodaro near Karachi and the Buddhist ruins of Taxila near Islamabad.

For more information on visas and travel to Pakistan, contact the Embassy of Pakistan, 2315 Massachusetts Ave., Washington, D.C. 20008, (202) 939-6200.