As one write about the missing walls and gateways of old Lahore, a lot of friends wish that I compare it with other ancient cities. So in this piece let me dwell on Multan to the south, Bhera to the west, Delhi to the east and Sialkot to the north. In them all are lessons for Lahore.

All these ancient cities, sadly, have a similar fate. All of them suffer from neglect. Surely the result of a semi-educated population. Goethe was so correct when he said that nothing is more dangerous than a semi-literate mob. Probably no other people on earth ignore their amazing past as we do. Utter neglect laced with callous ignorance is the best way to describe it. We have only one interesting feature in Lahore, Delhi, Multan and Bhera, and that is that they all have a Lohari Gate, which happens to be our oldest and most ancient gateway. So on to one city at a time.

Multan’s old walled city, probably older than Lahore, has gateways named Lohari Gate, Bohar Gate, Haram Gate, Pak Gate, Delhi Gate and Dolat Gate. This amazing city’s name is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘mulasthana’ or the ‘original place’. The Multan Sun Temple is, probably, a most important place for this is where Hinduism first, allegedly, emerged. The historian Firishta claimed that it was founded by the great grandson of the Prophet Noah (Hazrat Nuo). We know that the Greek invader Alexander came here in 326 BC, only to be hit by an arrow that ultimately led to his death. The Greek historian Herodotus mentions this clash where the entire Greek cavalry was decimated forever.

Multan was well-fortified even then, and the Vedas mentions it as playing a major role in the Kurukshetra War as described in the Mahabharata. The Hindu god Surya (Solar God) first appears in Multan, probably an offshoot of the Zoroastrian religion. This ancient city was a central trading city linking Kandahar and Iran to the sub-continent, just as Lahore linked north-west Asia to the sub-continent. Trading ships from Lahore stopped at Multan to offload or add goods destined to the sea.

Today the walls and gateways of this ancient city are in a shambles. A recent effort seems to be a restricted ‘project’ with little effect to the entire ancient city. Such is its decaying fate.

If we move on to the west to Bhera, we have this historic city with eight gateways and a crumbling wall surrounding it. Sadly its condition is like that of Lahore and Multan. Its gateways are called Lohari Gate facing Lahore to the east, Kashmiri Gate facing to the north, Multani Gate to the south and Kabuli Gate to the west. In between are Chinioti Gate facing Chiniot, and smaller gateways like Haji Gulab and Peeranwala.

Over the centuries every invader who came to the sub-continent ransacked Bhera, with Alexander the Great fighting out a battle with Raja Porus. Recent research claims Alexander was subdued by him. Later invaders included Mahmud of Ghazni in 1004 who went on to ransack Lahore in 1021, Genghis Khan the Mongol burnt it down, and the Mughal invader Babar also looted and burnt it. Later almost every Mughal looted it and in 1757 Ahmed Shah Durrani from Kabul butchered its population. Today Bhera is in utter ruins, with Lohari Gate being colourfully whitewashed to deceive conservationists.

Quite a few years ago I took a guest from Delhi whose father and family had lived here before 1947. Mr Malhotra wished to see his ancestral hometown. He knew the exact house to go to which had a small temple at its gate. When we reached the place it had dung-cakes plastered all over with two donkeys parked inside the temple. Both of us returned to Lahore in utter silence. The shame remains with me, still.

Let us move to old Delhi. This ancient city has been rebuilt eight times over the centuries, with the original city being at Mehrauli. It originally had seven gateways, but in 1611 we have a description by William Finch the English trader who claimed “Delhi has seven forts with 52 gateways”. Today only 13 gateways exist, with most in utter ruins. The expansion of Delhi’s underground and overhead Metro Rail caused major damage to the old walled city.

The existing gates are Lohari Gate facing Old Delhi, a second Lohari Gate facing the Red Fort, then comes Kashmiri Gate, Delhi Gate facing Mehrauli, Ajmeri Gate, Turkman Gate, Kabuli Gate, Nigambodh Gate, a Mori Gate and Bahadur Shahi Gate. The geography of their location is apparent. Today like the old walled cities in Pakistan’s Punjab, we see the walls and gateways of old Delhi in a shambles.

There is a mention of Delhi, as Indraprastha of the Pandayas, in the Mahabharata. This belief seems to grip most Indians in search of ancient roots, with most hanging on to Valmiki’s version. Even the deity Indra was created from the deity Surya, the solar god, who emerged from the River Ravi, hence the word Ravivara, or Sunday in Hindu mythology. In a sense Delhi in age comes much after Multan, Lahore and Bhera.

But probably the oldest walled city is Sialkot, whose walls and gateways have all disappeared. Alexander the Great razed the city to the ground and left his general Menander the First as its ruler. It was in its days probably one of the major centres of Buddhist thought. This city still has an amazing ability to raise poets and intellectuals. When Lahore was razed to the ground by Mahmud, the ruling Hindushahi family moved to Sialkot, and ultimately to Kashmir.

The remains of the ancient Sialkot Fort, probably the oldest in the sub-continent, can be seen. With time more and more bricks are stolen. Nearby is the legendary well of the epic ‘Puran Bhagat’. Though this is Pakistan’s finest manufacturing centre, yet no one seems interested in its ancient monuments.

Probably once the first homo-sapiens moved along the coast eastwards towards Australia, they also headed up our rivers, with Mehrgarh in Baluchistan being the oldest planned city site not only in the entire sub-continent, but in the known world. The condition of Mehrgarh speaks for itself. The condition of Mohenjo Daro and Harappa is no less. So it is with our walled cities, our real heritage and ancient history. That we admire plunderers only has become part of our national psyche. In a way the current power struggle has roots in our psyche.

But then when it comes to the old walled city of Lahore, there is an urgent need to renovate the missing walls and gateways as close to the original lost ones as possible. There is a need to conserve the dilapidated old historic houses inside the walled city, every much in line with what the Aga Khan Trust did with 13 houses in Gali Surjan Singh in 2011.

Yes, the Lahore Fort and Wazir Khan’s Mosque are important Mughal-era monuments that are getting all the attention. One does not grudge that. But the real focus should be on those who live inside this ancient city, their houses need saving as they slowly crumble. That is the only way forward that will have a meaningful impact. That is where our real history lies … in the people.