History of Lahore

The Badshahi Mosque was built in 1673 by the Emperor Aurangzeb in Lahore

The recorded history of Lahore (Urdu: تاريخ لاہور‎), the second largest city-district of Pakistan, covers thousands of years. Originally the capital and largest city of the Punjab region, it has since its creation changed hands from Hindu, Buddhist, Greek, Afghan, Muslim, Sikh and British rule to becoming the cultural capital and the heart of modern day Pakistan.

A mythological legend, based on oral traditions, states that Lahore was named after Lava, son of the Hindu god Rama, who supposedly founded the city. To this day, the Lahore Fort has a vacant temple dedicated to Lava (also pronounced Loh, hence "Loh-awar" or The Fort of Loh). Likewise, the Ravi River that flows through northern Lahore was named for the Hindu goddess Durga^..
Ptolemy, the celebrated astronomer and geographer, mentions in his Geographia a city called Laboklasituated on the route between the Indus river and Palibothra or Pataliputra (Patna), in a tract of country called Kasperia (Kashmir), described as extending along the rivers Bidastes or Vitasta (Jhelum), Sandabal or Chandra Bhaga (Chenab), and Adris or Iravati (Ravi).
The oldest authentic document about Lahore was written anonymously in 982 and is called Hudud-i-Alam. It was translated into English by Vladimir Fedorovich Minorsky and published in Lahore in 1927. In this document, Lahore is referred to as a small shahr (city) with "impressive temples, large markets and huge orchards." It refers to "two major markets around which dwellings exist," and it also mentions "the mud walls that enclose these two dwellings to make it one." The original document is currently held in the British Museum.

 ^{Source: Wikipedia}