Serai Nurmahal at Nurmahal in Jalandhar district was built for Nur Jahan and is ASI-protected.
It is one of a small group of surviving Mughal serais in Indian Punjab, along with Dakhni Sarai near Nakodar.
The serai at Nurmahal was built between about 1618 and 1621 and is attributed to Nur Jahan, whose title gives the town its name. Its two gateways carry carved sandstone panels of animals, hunters and mythological scenes, which is unusual for a Mughal utilitarian building.
It is one of a line of serais along the Grand Trunk Road, with Doraha, Dakhni Sarai and Phillaur, built roughly a day's march apart so that a traveller could sleep behind walls every night from Bengal to Kabul.
It is a protected monument on the edge of a small town in Jalandhar district and receives almost no visitors.
The town takes its name from Nur Jahan and the tradition is that she was brought up nearby. The serai was one of a set of works she endowed, along with buildings and gardens elsewhere in the empire.
The building has been used at different times as a police post, a school and a store. Encroachment on its cells and its courtyard has been cleared and has come back.
It stands about ten kilometres off the Grand Trunk Road between Phillaur and Nakodar. There is no sign on the highway, no entry fee, and on most days nobody there.