The Tomb of Asif Khan (Urdu: مقبرۂ آصف خان) is a 17th-century mausoleum located in Shahdara Bagh, in the city of Lahore, Punjab.
Asif Khan's tomb was built in a Central Asian architectural style,[4] and stands in the centre of a Persian-style Charbagh garden.
[2] The plundered materials were then used to decorate the Golden Temple in Amritsar, as well as for use to build the Hazuri Bagh Baradari near the Lahore Fort.
[1][2] The tomb is built entirely of brick in an octagonal plan, and sits in the centre of a large quadrangle measure 300 yards on each side.
Octagonal tombs were never used for emperors, but were commonly employed for burial of high-ranking noblemen such as Asif Khan.
[2] The exterior originally was adorned with marble stone inlay work and veneered with stucco tracery, and blue kashi tiles typical of Lahore.
[1] The bulbous dome that crowns the tomb was once covered in a marble veneer,[8] and is of a shape that is unique among all Mughal structures.
[2] Such bulbous domes were an innovation of Shah Jahan's era, and were used to great effect at other sites such as the Taj Mahal in Agra.
The tomb is surrounded by a Persian-style Charbagh garden,[4] with four long pools, or hauz, lined with walkways in each of the 4 cardinal directions.
The southern façade of the gateway was covered with red sandstone and white marble, while the other three sides featured decorated plasterwork.
The tomb did not attract much attention from British colonial authorities, although a staircase in the shrine that had been destroyed by the Sikhs was rebuilt in 1905, while the floor's brick work and the ceiling's plasterwork were repaired.
Though Pakistani law forbids construction of new buildings within 150 feet of heritage sites, the tomb's boundary walls are separated from private homes by a narrow street on its western and northern sides.