places Categories: Attractions and Historical Places
Lahore is a historical city located in Punjab, Pakistan. Origin of Lahore city is not known. A section of city Lahore is known as Walled City of Lahore, “Old City” or “Androon Shehr”. It is called walled city because during the Mughal era a city wall fortified it.
There were thirteen gates in the Walled City of Lahore and Mochi Gate was one of them. In 1849 when British came to Punjab, they destroyed almost all the gates except the Roshnai Gate. Out of thirteen only 6 gates survived. Mochi Gate is one of the gates that do not exist now but that area of Old City still calls mochi gate, Lahore.
Mochi gate is locally known as Mochi Darwaza. A prominent landmark is “Laal Haveli” and this gate used to exit next to this Haveli. Word Mochi in Urdu is used for cobbler that shows that this area might was the market of shoes and repair shops. Another story related to the name of this gate is that that the initial name of this gate was Moti gate. In Mughal era Moti was a guard who looked after the gate all of his life. Later name Moti distorted and became Mochi.
More likely, the name was originated from Morchi an Urdu word used for a long and narrow ditch dug by the soldiers to provide a place of shelter from enemy. It could be the origin because during pre Mughal rule units of troops were stationed here. Other facts that go in the support of this origin are the names of some streets that are not changed as Mohalla Teer-Garan means arrow craftsmen and Mohallah Kaman-Garan meas bow craftsmen.
Inside the Mochi Gate there is Mohalla Shia. Shias are the member of an Islamic sect. Moharram is the first lunar month of Islamic calendar and Shias gather every year here and arrange majalis (religious gathering) to memorialize the martyrdom of Hazrat imam Hussain a.s the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Many Imam Barghas are situated here in the form of Haveli. Havilis like Nisar Havili, Laal Haveli, Haveli Wajid Ali Shah and Mubarak Haveli are from some of the masterpieces of Mughal architecture that can be found here. Mochi gate is also popular for the dried fruit, kites and firework shops. All the area within this gate is so congested and most of the streets are so narrow that it is not possible for the two people to walk parallel in the street.
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