Located in Lahore, Pakistan these gardens were completed a year after work began in 1642 during the reign of Shah Jahan–the same guy that built the Taj Mahal. The gardens were inspired by the Shalimar garden created by his father in Kashmir. The layout is considered a Persian paradise garden (known as Charbagh) and was based on the Timurid gardens of central Asia and Iran built during the 1300-1500s.
Other things about the gardens:
It’s often referred to as a Mughal garden. Mughal was the early Islamic empire in Southeast Asia starting in 1526 and mostly dissolved in 1858.
It was designed and constructed by Iranian architect Mulla Alaul Maulk Tuni with the cooperation of Ali Mardan Khan a Kurdish-Iranian military leader who built the canal that fed the water into Lahore from the Ravi River located 100 miles away.
The gardens were built on land that was owned by the Mian family and the gardens were in their care for 350 years.
The garden is rectangular as a whole and has 3 terraces, a total of 410 fountains, 5 water cascades, and around 10 garden pavilions.
Named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981.
Image: Shalimar Gardens
Sources: “Fort and Shalimar Gardens in Lahore”. UNESCO. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
Nazir Ahmad Chaudhry (1998). Lahore: Glimpses of a Glorious Heritage. p. 279. ISBN 9789693509441.
Clark, Emma (2004). The Art of the Islamic Garden. Crowood. ISBN 186126609X.
Schimmel, Annemarie (2004). The Empire of the Great Mughals: History, Art and Culture. Reaktion Books. p. 295. ISBN 1861891857.