Hiran Minar

The Hiran Minar, built during the reign of Jahangir & Shah Jahan

Hiran Minar is set in peaceful environs near Lahore in Sheikhupura, Pakistan. It was constructed
by Emperor Jahangir as a monument to Mansraj, one of his pet deer.

The structure consists of a large, almost-square water tank with an octagonal pavilion in its center,
built during the reign of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan; a causeway with its own gateway connects
the pavilion with the mainland and a 100-foot (30 m)-high minar, or minaret.

At the center of each side of the tank, a brick ramp slopes down to the water, providing access for
royal animals and wild game. The minar itself was built by Emperor Jahangir in 1606 to honor the
memory of a pet hunting antelope named Mansraj.

Unique features of this particular complex are the antelope's grave and the distinctive water
collection system. At each corner of the tank (approximately 750 by 895 feet (273 m) in size), is a
small, square building and a subsurface water collection system which supplied the tank; only one
of these water systems is extensively exposed today.

Another special feature of Hiran Minar is its location and environment: the top of the minar is
perhaps the best place in the province of Punjab to get a feel for the broader landscape and its
relationship to a Mughal site.

Looking north from the top of the minar, one can see a patch of forest which is similar to the scrub
forest vegetation of Mughal times, while to the west are extensively-irrigated fields, a product of the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but similar in size and appearance to the well-irrigated
fields of the Mughal period.