Gujranwala District (Urdu: ضلع گوجرانوالہ) is a district in Punjab, Pakistan.
The village of Asarur which has been identified as the location of Taki, an ancient town, visited by the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang contains immense ruins of Buddhist origin. After the time of Tsiang little is known about Gujranwala til the Islamic conquests (Tehami), by this time however Taki had fallen into oblivion while Lahore had become the chief city of Punjab. The district flourished during Mughal rule, from the days of Akbar to those of Aurangzeb, wells were scattered over the whole country, and villages lay thickly dotted about the southern plateau, now a barren waste of grass land and scrub jungle. Their remains may still be found in the wildest and most solitary reaches of the Bar.
Eminabad and Hafizabad were the chief towns (the later now part of a separate district), while the country was divided into six well-tilled parganas. But before the close of the Islamic period the tract was mysteriously depopulated. The tribes at present occupying the District are all immigrants of recent date, and before their advent the whole region seems for a time to have been almost entirely abandoned. The only plausible conjecture to account for this sudden and disastrous change is that it resulted from the constant wars by which the Punjab was convulsed during the last years of Tehami rule.
Gujranwala (Punjabi, Urdu: گوجرانوالہ ) is an industrial city in the north-east of the Punjab province. It is the 7th largest city in Pakistan with a population of approximately 2,661,360 as on 24 June 2011 (Extrapolated from a population of 1,415,711 in 2006 and a population of 2,569,090 on February 4, 2011). Gujranwala is located at 32.16° North, 74.18° East and is 226 metres (744 ft) above sea level. It shares borders with Ghakhar Mandi, Alipur Chatha, kamonke and some small towns and villages. Punjabi is the local language, but English and Urdu are also common, particularly in schools and offices. Due to extensive road and rail links the city has flourished within the manufacturing and agricultural markets. The city is on the Grand Trunk Road, which allows logistical connections to the provincial capitals such as Peshawar and Lahore and also to the capital of Pakistan Islamabad.It is in between Lahore and [Gujrat,Wazirabad]. its small and medium industries. Gujranwala is known for its extensive production of sugarcane, melons and grains for international export.Gujranwala exports one of the world's finest quality Rice. The city has set up several commercial and industrial centres allowing the manufacturing of ceramics,Fans,electrical switch gears,engineering tools,Agricultural/earth moving machinery, steel, cutlery, crockery, iron safes, metal tool, utensils, textiles,Wollen Sweaters, sanitary Fittings and tannery production. The city has produced some of the finest wrestlers and bodybuilders of the subcontinent, which has resulted in the nickname 'City of wrestlers' or Phelwana da shehar in Punjabi. The city is also the birthplace of the legendary Sikh warrior-king, Ranjit Singh.