Pathar Masjid is a Mughal stone mosque on the Jhelum in Srinagar's old city, built under Empress Nur Jahan, the wife of Emperor Jahangir. Its name simply means stone mosque, and stone is the point: no dome, no spire, no timber, in a city that builds almost everything in wood. Nine arches run across the front, the middle one taller than the rest.
This guide comes from Duke Kashmir Travels, Srinagar, registered with the J&K Department of Tourism as JKTA00003978 since 2011. Our old-city walk passes the mosque; Kashmir packages start around ₹6,350 per person, two sharing.
By Duke Kashmir Travels Team · Reviewed by Rayies Ahmad Zargar, Founder · Published · Updated
Key takeaways
- Built under Nur Jahan in the Mughal period, on the Jhelum in the old city.
- Nine arches, the central one largest; a flat roof rather than the usual pyramidal Kashmiri form.
- Locally called Naev Masheed, the new mosque.
- Grey limestone construction, unusual in the valley.
- Stands across the water from Khanqah-e-Moula.
- Ten minutes is enough unless you are photographing the facade.
Why does Pathar Masjid look so different?
Because it is Mughal rather than Kashmiri: cut stone, arcaded, flat-roofed, with none of the timber, spires or pyramidal roofs of the valley's own mosques.
Nur Jahan had it built during her husband Jahangir's reign, when the court summered in Kashmir. The result is a piece of imperial architecture dropped into a riverside quarter of wooden houses, and the contrast is the reason to stop.
What is there to see?
The nine-arch facade from the lane or the far bank, and the plain, cool prayer hall behind it.
Photographers usually work from the river side, where the whole front is visible at once. The interior is austere by design; there is no decorative programme to speak of.
How do you find it?
On the Jhelum bank in Shahr-i-Khaas, close to Khanqah-e-Moula and a short walk from Jamia Masjid.
The three sit within a few hundred metres of each other, so one walk covers a fourteenth-century wooden shrine, a fourteenth-century congregational mosque and a seventeenth-century Mughal stone mosque. The Srinagar page has the wider list.
Booking this with us
Behind the itineraries: Duke Kashmir Travels, a Srinagar agency carrying tourism registration JKTA00003978 from March 2011, IATO membership ALD150928 and a seat in the JK Tourism Council. Details on About Us.
Give us the dates and the number of travellers; the itinerary and the quote come back the same day. +91 9018 44 0000, info@dukekashmirtravels.com, or the contact page.
About the founder
Duke Kashmir Travels is owned and run by its founder, Rayies Ahmad Zargar, who set it up in Srinagar in 2011 and checks these destination pages himself. LinkedIn.