Skip to content
The Kashmir Timeline

Hazratbal Shrine

The Valley's holiest shrine, in white marble on Dal Lake.

Hazratbal Shrine photograph

Photo: Hardikmodi · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Hazratbal holds a relic venerated as a hair of the Prophet Muhammad, brought to Kashmir around 1700. The site began as a Mughal garden and pleasure house. The white marble building with its single dome was completed in 1979 and is among the most recognisable buildings in Kashmir.

Facts

  • The relic is shown to the public on religious occasions, drawing huge crowds.
  • It is often described as the only domed mosque in Srinagar.
  • Its disappearance for more than a week over the winter of 1963 and 1964 shook the whole Valley.