The Shalimar Gardens

The Shalimar Gardens, also known as Shalamar Gardens, were built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in Lahore, Pakistan. Construction began in 1641 A.D. (1051 A.H.) and was completed the following year. The project was managed under the supervision of Khalilullah Khan, a noble of Shah Jahan's court, in cooperation with Ali Mardan Khan.

The Shalimar Gardens are laid out in the form of an oblong parallelogram, surrounded by a high brick wall, which is famous for its intricate fretwork. The gardens measure 658 meters north to south and 258 meters east to west. In 1981, Shalimar Gardens was included as a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with the Lahore Fort, under the UNESCO Convention concerning the protection of the world's cultural and natural heritage sites in 1972.
There are three level terraces of the Gardens. The Gardens have been laid out from south to north in three descending terraces, which are elevated by 4-5 metres (13-15 feet) above one another. The three terraces are named:

The upper terrace named Farah Baksh meaning Bestower of Pleasure, the middle terrace named Faiz Baksh meaning Bestower of Goodness, the lower terrace named Hayat Baksh meaning Bestower of life.
From this basin, and from the canal, rise 410 fountains, which discharge into wide marble pools. The surrounding area is rendered cooler by the flowing of the fountains, which is a particular relief for visitors during Lahore's blistering summers, with temperature sometimes exceeding 120 degrees fahrenheit. It is a credit to the ingenuity of the Mughal engineers that even today scientists are unable to understand how the fountains were operated originally. The distribution of the fountains is as follows:

The upper level terrace has 105 fountains, the middle level terrace has 152 fountains, the lower level terrace has 153 fountains.

All combined, the Gardens therefore have 410 fountains.The Gardens have 5 water cascades including the great marble cascade and Sawan Bhadoon.

The gardens today remind of the Mogul glory and their taste and the perfectionism found in their engineers and craftsmen. Moguls went to great extents and expenses to have such beautiful constructions made for their pleasure and mark their glory. Sadly today long after the Moguls of the subcontinent much of the stages of the gardens have though lost but the remaining uper stages have been preserved and opened to public visitors and the gardens are sometimes used to stage many shows and recently it hosted the grand welcome arranged by the government to the ex Iranian president and last year to the Chinese president. The gardens are more like a national monument and cultural heritage to the country and especially to the city of Lahore and are major tourist attractions in the region.