Why it looks like this

Lahore was a Mughal capital under Akbar in the late 1500s, and the Walled City still holds that world: the fort and Badshahi Mosque at its corner, havelis and bazaar lanes inside, and the memory of thirteen gates — a few still standing, the rest surviving as place names on the circular road that replaced the wall.

The British added a second city to the southeast: the Mall's straight, shaded mile of colonial buildings, the cantonment, and garden suburbs. Modern Lahore wraps both in ring roads and new towns, but the double heart — walled maze plus colonial axis — still organizes the map.