Mughal Gardens in Srinagar and Kashmir: A Visitor's Guide to All Six

Looking for Delhi's Mughal Garden at Rashtrapati Bhavan? It was renamed Amrit Udyan in 2023. See our Amrit Udyan guide.

The 6 Mughal Gardens of Kashmir at a Glance

UNESCO's dossier is the most reliable source for who built what and when, so the history columns below follow it. Distances are road kilometres from Dal Gate.

You will see other counts online, from three to seven. Shorter lists drop the two Anantnag gardens. Longer ones add Harwan or Naseem Bagh, which are old gardens but not part of the UNESCO nomination. Six is the defensible number.

About Mughal Gardens in Srinagar

What sets the Srinagar gardens apart from the Mughal gardens of Agra, Delhi or Lahore is the slope. Each one climbs from the edge of Dal Lake to a mountain spring, so you walk uphill through the terraces and turn round to see water, Hari Parbat fort and the city below. Shalimar Bagh, at the foot of the Zabarwan range on the north-east of the lake, is the best known and the one most Srinagar itineraries start with.

Jahangir chose the sites and spent long summers in the valley. Shah Jahan, his nobles and his son Dara Shikoh added the rest. Spring water still runs down the stone channels by gravity alone, with no pumps, and the terraces frame the views over Dal Lake that every visitor photographs. For the rest of the city, start with our Srinagar travel guide.

Mughal Gardens in Srinagar

The four Srinagar gardens line up along Boulevard Road and the slopes above it. Chashme Shahi and Pari Mahal sit up the hill close to each other, while Nishat and Shalimar are on the lake's eastern and north-eastern edge, 4 km apart.

Shalimar Bagh: The Emperor's Garden

Shalimar Bagh is the royal garden of Kashmir, set on the north-east side of Dal Lake at the foot of the Zabarwan range. Come in late October or early November, when the chinar avenue along the channel turns copper. Emperor Jahangir laid out the lower garden, the Farah Bakhsh ("joy-imparting"), around 1620, with Prince Khurram, the later Shah Jahan, overseeing the work. Tradition ties it to his love for Nur Jahan, which is why guides call it the garden of love. Around 1630 Shah Jahan's governor Zafar Khan added the upper Fayz Bakhsh ("bounty-bestowing"), the private zenana garden.

The garden measures about 594 x 250 m across five main terraces. The first three were the Diwan-i-Aam, where the emperor gave public audience, and the brick Pink Pavilion still straddles the water channel on the second terrace. A masonry wall then screens the top two terraces, the Diwan-i-Khas and zenana. Here stands the Black Pavilion on the fourth terrace, its stone columns polished so dark they read as black, with painted niches on the walls. It is the finest Mughal building left in Kashmir. Shalimar is connected with Dal Lake via a 1.6-km-long canal lined by a walkway, which is how the court once arrived by boat. Read more in our Shalimar Bagh guide and the history of Shalimar Bagh.

Nishat Bagh: The Garden of Joy

Nishat Bagh, the Garden of Joy (some guides say Gladness), is the largest of Kashmir's terraced Mughal gardens and sits on the eastern shore of Dal Lake. Asaf Khan (Mirza Abul Hasan), Nur Jahan's brother and Shah Jahan's father-in-law, laid it out in 1634. UNESCO measures it at about 556 x 350 m, and it climbs in 12 terraces, said to stand for the signs of the zodiac, from the lake shore to the foot of the Zabarwan.

Nishat was a private garden, not a court, so it has fewer buildings than Shalimar. What it has instead is water and view. The central channel drops over stone chadars into fountain pools, and from every terrace you look straight across the Dal to Hari Parbat fort and, on a clear day, the Pir Panjal range behind the city. The top terrace was the zenana, with watchtowers (burjis) at its corners. It is the busiest garden at weekends, so get there by 9:30 am. You can also arrive the old way, by shikara. More in our guide to Nishat Bagh, the Garden of Joy.

Chashme Shahi: The Royal Spring

Built in 1632 by Ali Mardan Khan, a governor of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, Chashme Shahi is the smallest of the Mughal gardens. It is about 122.8 m long and 70.8 m wide and spread over an area of about 1.73 acres. This garden is built around a freshwater spring on the slopes of the Zabarwan mountain range, high above the city, with distant views of Dal Lake rather than a place on its banks.

The name means royal spring, and the spring is still the point. It rises under a later Kashmiri pavilion at the top of the garden, and locals fill bottles from it because the water is famously cold. From there it drops through narrow rills and single fountains over three steep terraces, an early Mughal style you will not see in the bigger gardens. It is at its best in the late afternoon. Pari Mahal is 2.2 km up the same road, a five-minute drive. Our Chashme Shahi spring garden guide has more.

Pari Mahal: The Palace of Fairies

Overlooking Srinagar from the Zabarwan slope above Chashme Shahi, Pari Mahal is a six-terraced garden that does not contain any water channels and cascades like the other gardens. Instead, a system of underground pipes feeds the water tanks. Prince Dara Shikoh (Dara Shukoh in UNESCO's spelling), Shah Jahan's eldest son, built it around 1650 on the ruins of a Buddhist monastery, as a school of Sufism for his teacher Mullah Shah Badakhshi. Tradition holds that it was also used as an observatory.

The name, palace of fairies, is said to come from Dara's wife Nadira Begum, known as Pari Begum. Arched retaining walls hold up the terraces, and you enter on the fourth one, through what was probably a hammam. It has the widest view over Dal Lake in Srinagar. Reported closing times range from about 5 pm to 7 pm, so ask at the gate before planning a sunset visit. In summer, arrive by 4 pm for warm late-afternoon light over the lake. Expect a security check at the gate, because the road passes official residences. Read our full Pari Mahal guide.

Mughal Gardens in Anantnag: A Day Trip from Srinagar

The two Anantnag gardens are older in spirit and quieter in practice. Both are built on springs that were sacred long before the Mughals arrived, and both are worth the drive if you have a spare day in Srinagar.

Verinag: Where the Jhelum Begins

Recognised by the ASI as a Monument of National Importance, this garden lies around the famous Verinag Spring, the acknowledged source of the Jhelum River. Constructed in the 15th year of Jahangir's reign (1619 to 1620) by the court engineer Mirza Haider, it is different from every other garden on this list. There are no terraces. Instead a perfect octagonal stone arcade encloses a deep blue-green spring, about 15 m deep, full of trout that no one catches.

From the octagon a straight channel, 12 ft wide and 1,000 ft long, runs north to join the river. Shah Jahan enlarged the garden in 1626 to 1627 and renamed it Shahabad. Jahangir loved Verinag enough to ask to be buried here, though he died on the road and lies in Lahore. It is about 82 km from Dal Gate. See our guide to the Verinag spring and garden.

Achabal: Nur Jahan's Garden

Achabal sits in a small town in Anantnag district, in the south-east of the Kashmir Valley. The garden was laid out by Empress Nur Jahan in 1620 and first named Begumabad after her. The spring here, Achapal Nag, is mentioned in the ancient Nilmat Purana, and the site was an orchard garden under the Sultans of Kashmir before the Mughals took it over.

Achabal covers about 9.7 acres on four gently rising terraces at the base of a forested hill locally called Achabal Thung. The spring bursts out at the top and rushes down the central channel with more force than in any Srinagar garden, under pavilions built over the water. Shah Jahan's daughter Jahanara added a hammam in the 17th century. It sees a fraction of Nishat's crowds and is about 64 km from Dal Gate.

Which Mughal Garden Is Best?

It depends on what you came for. Most first-time visitors see all four Srinagar gardens in one go, but if you only have time for one or two, this is how our Kashmir desk advises travellers.

Mughal Gardens Srinagar Timings and Entry Fee

The gardens are run by the J&K Department of Floriculture. Each one is ticketed separately at its own gate, and there is no combined pass. Tickets are cheap, but rates and hours are revised from time to time, so treat the table as a planning guide for 2026 to 27 and check the board at the first gate you visit.

Foreign nationals pay a higher rate, shown on the board. Phone cameras are free inside every garden. Travellers have reported a Friday closure at some gardens in past seasons, so ask your hotel or driver the evening before a Friday visit. For hours garden by garden, see the Mughal Gardens timings page.

How to Reach the Mughal Gardens

All four Srinagar gardens are on or just above Boulevard Road on the eastern side of Dal Lake, so one taxi covers them in a loop. These are road distances measured in October 2026.

• By taxi. The easiest way. Book a half-day car from your hotel or the taxi stand at Dal Gate and agree the four stops and waiting time before you set off. Most Srinagar tour packages already include this loop on the local sightseeing day.

• By shikara. Nishat has lake-side steps, and a shikara from the Boulevard ghats takes about 1.5 to 2 hours each way. The notified card is Rs 700 for the first hour and Rs 400 for each extra hour, per boat. See our shikara ride guide.

• By auto or minibus. Autos run the length of Boulevard Road, and the Harwan-bound minibuses pass Nishat and Shalimar. Pari Mahal is uphill, so take a cab for that leg.

For taxi options and routes from the airport and railway station, see how to reach the Mughal Gardens.

Half-Day Mughal Gardens Route

This is the order we suggest to most travellers. It starts uphill while the road is empty and finishes at the two big lakeside gardens, about 4.5 hours with short drives between stops.

• 9:00 am, Chashme Shahi (40 minutes). Taste the spring water and walk the three terraces before the tour groups arrive.

• 9:50 am, Pari Mahal (45 minutes). 2.2 km up the hill. Morning light across Dal Lake towards Hari Parbat.

• 11:00 am, Nishat Bagh (75 minutes). Down to Boulevard Road. Walk all 12 terraces and stop for kahwa at the stalls by the gate.

• 12:30 pm, Shalimar Bagh (75 minutes). 4 km on. Find the Black Pavilion on the fourth terrace and the chinar avenue along the channel.

• 2:00 pm, optional Harwan Garden and lunch. 4.7 km past Shalimar. In late March and April, swap this for the Tulip Garden on the way back.

Prefer the late light? Reverse the order and finish at Pari Mahal by 4 pm, before entry closes. For the Anantnag loop, leave Srinagar by 8 am for Achabal (64 km, about 2 hours), continue 17 km to the Kokernag spring garden, then 21 km to Verinag, and drive 82 km back. Plan on 9 to 10 hours and ask for the trip as a separate day in your itinerary.

Best Time to Visit the Mughal Gardens, Month by Month

The gardens are open all year, but they change completely with the season. April to June is when the fountains run full and the beds are planted. Late October to mid November is when the chinars turn copper and gold, the season most photographers wait for.

Tulip festival dates move with the weather each year, so check our tulip festival guide. For temperatures and the wider picture, see the best time to visit Srinagar.

Traditional Mughal Gardens: How a Kashmiri Garden Works

Every Kashmir garden follows the Persian chahar bagh (charbagh), a garden split into four by water. The Mughals adapted it to the valley's mountain springs. Each garden sits at the foot of a hill, between the slope and the lake, so the water channel became a central axis stepping down through terraces.

One of the main elements of these gardens is running water and a pool that would reflect the sky and the garden. At each drop the water slides over a carved stone chadar, a ribbed water chute, into a square pool (hauz) lined with fountains, and finally empties into a lake or stream. Pavilions called baradaris sit over the channel, and avenues of chinar and poplar trees line it, pulling your eye down the garden to the lake and the hills beyond. Trees for shade, fruit and flowers filled the side terraces, many of them orchards.

The number eight, linked to the eight paradises (hasht bihisht) of Islamic cosmology, shows up in octagonal pools and pavilions, and Verinag's octagonal spring is the purest example. Two gardens break the pattern. Verinag has no terraces at all, and Pari Mahal has no cascades because underground pipes carried its water.

Other Gardens in Srinagar

If you searched for gardens in Srinagar rather than the Mughal set, these five are worth adding. Two of them sit on the same road as the Mughal gardens.

• Harwan Garden. A quiet lawn-and-canal garden 4.7 km past Shalimar, on the road to Dachigam. Locals picnic here, and it makes a good lunch stop on the route.

• Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden. Asia's largest tulip garden, on the Zabarwan slope above Dal. It opens only for the spring bloom, usually late March to April, and entry was Rs 75 for adults in 2026.

• Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Botanical Garden. Next to the Tulip Garden, with a boating lake and shaded walks. Good with children.

• Badamwari. An almond orchard at the foot of Hari Parbat, at its best for two or three weeks in March.

• Naseem Bagh. A chinar grove planted under Akbar in the late 1500s, according to tradition, now inside a university campus near Hazratbal, so access is limited.

Tips from Our Kashmir Experts

• Carry small change or keep UPI ready. Each garden sells its own ticket, so you will buy four on the Srinagar loop.

• Go before 10 am at weekends and through April, when tulip-season crowds spill into Nishat and Shalimar.

• Wear shoes with grip. Chashme Shahi and Pari Mahal have steep steps, and the upper terraces in every garden are hard going for wheelchairs.

• Do not pick flowers or walk on the beds. Gardeners will stop you, and in tulip season they mean it.

• Bring a light jacket even in June. Evenings by the lake turn cold quickly after sunset.

• Photographers at Nishat and Shalimar rent Kashmiri pheran costumes for portraits. Agree the price for prints before you pose.

• Drones need prior permission in Srinagar. Leave yours at the hotel unless you have it.

Plan Your Mughal Gardens Day

The Mughal gardens of Srinagar take half a day and cost a few hundred rupees, and they are the one sightseeing day nearly every Kashmir trip shares. Pair them with a sunset shikara and you have the classic Srinagar day. Our Srinagar tour packages, Kashmir honeymoon packages and Kashmir family packages include the garden loop, and a TravelTriangle agent can add the Anantnag day for Achabal and Verinag. Still choosing what to see? Browse the best places to visit in Srinagar, things to do in Srinagar and our wider list of places to visit in Kashmir.

Edited by TravelTriangle

Based on Srinagar trips planned by the TravelTriangle Kashmir desk. Garden history is checked against the UNESCO Tentative List dossier, and road distances were measured from Dal Gate in October 2026.