It was designed by Asaf Khan, brother of Noor Jehan, in 1633 AD. It is largest of the Mughal gardens and is situated on the banks of Dal lake. Located on the bank of the Dal Lake, with the Zabarwan Mountains as its backdrop.
NishatBagh is a garden of bliss that commands a magnificent view of the lake beneath the snow cappedPirPanjal mountain range that stands far away to the west of the valley.
It is invariably at the foot of a mountain, wherever there is a source of water either in the form of streams or springs and take the form of terraced garden layouts.
The Mughal engineering skills and aesthetics helped in exploiting the dominating natural landscape and the available water resources to their maximum potential and achieved an unparalleled height of perfection.
Nishat Bagh as laid out now is a broad cascade of terraces lined with avenues of chinar and cypress trees, which starts from the lakeshore and reaches up to an artificial façade at the hill end. Rising from the edge of the Dal Lake, it has twelve 12 terraces representing twelve Zodiacal signs.
It has only two sections, namely the public garden and the private garden for the Zanana or harem vis-à-vis the four sections of the Shalimar Bagh; this difference is attributed to the fact that the latter Bagh catered to the Mughal Emperor, while Nishad Bagh belonged to a man of his court, a noble.
Even though the layout of Nishat Bagh was based on the basic conceptual model of the Persian gardens, it had to be remodelled to fit the topographic and water source conditions at the site chosen in the Kashmir valley.
The plan, instead of being central with four radiating arms in a square pattern as in the case of Chahar (suited for a flat country side), was changed to an axial stream flow design to fit the hill condition with water source originating at the top of the hill end.