Lahore: first impressions of the old city

The big cities I've visisted in South Asia-- Bombay, Calcutta, Karachi-- are striking for their crowds, bustle, vibrance, pollution.  Lahore feels similar, if on a smaller scale.  But the sense of history here is palpable, in a way I haven't experienced yet.  I imagine Dehli might feel this way too.  

 This part of the city we visited was layered with the evidence of several ages.  It was the old city, with the huge Mughal-era Badshahi masjid and the old red light district, which was the center of Lahore's famed courtesan and cultural scene.  There was the architecture of palaces and courtyards of the Mughal and Sikh kings of the centuries before British rule.  Overlayed on that, the footprint of the British, and their own ornate and lasting buildings.  And some of the same areas now house small shoemakers' shops and factories, manufacturing soles and leather shapes.  These dusty shops are within the elegant, dilapidated structures built by Lahore's previous rulers.  Greasy industry layered on old riches.  There's an active movement to preserve the old structures, which are quickly being destroyed to make room for new development.

We accidentally wandered into a covered courtyard, which we thought was a private space but was actually a public area.  A resident told us it used to be the Diwan-e-Aam (courtyard for the commoners) of Raja Dehant Singh.  After partition, once the old rulers left, migrants settled their households within the courtyard, transforming it from a king's space to a normal living area.