The Mosque City of Bagerhat

The Mosque City of Bagerhat, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the humid delta of the southwest, is one of Bangladesh's greatest historical treasures, the remains of a remarkable medieval Islamic city. In the fifteenth century, a Turkish general and Muslim saint, Khan Jahan Ali, founded a city here in the mangrove wilderness, building a wealth of mosques, mausoleums and infrastructure. Its crowning glory is the Shat Gombuj Masjid, the Sixty Dome Mosque, a vast, austere and beautiful brick structure whose forest of pillars supports scores of domes, a masterpiece of the early Islamic architecture of Bengal. Its name is a puzzle in itself - the mosque actually carries seventy-seven domes on sixty pillars. Around the monuments, the vast excavated tanks Khan Jahan Ali dug to hold fresh water in the saline delta still hold water, and crocodiles are kept at the pond by his shrine.

History

In the 15th century the Bengal Sultanate appointed Khan Jahan Ali, also known as Ulug Khan, as its governor here, and the city he built became known in the 16th century as Khalifatabad. Its greatest building, the Sixty Dome Mosque, which in fact has 60 pillars and 77 domes, was founded by Khan Jahan Ali in 1440, and after his death on 25 October 1459 he was buried in a tomb nearby. The Archaeological Survey of British India made an extensive survey of the area in 1895, and the city, with some 360 mosques, was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in the 1980s (Wikipedia, Mosque City of Bagerhat).

What you'll find

• The Sixty Dome Mosque - the vast, many-domed brick masterpiece.
• Nine Dome Mosque - among the scattered smaller medieval mosques and tombs.
• The water tanks - vast excavated reservoirs built to hold fresh water.
• The saint's tomb - the mausoleum of Khan Jahan Ali.

When to go

November to March, the cool, dry season, for the most comfortable weather, as the delta is intensely hot and humid in summer and wet in the monsoon; the mosque and monuments are best explored in the cooler morning hours. Fridays bring prayers at the working mosques, so timing a visit around them is respectful. It pairs naturally with a trip to the nearby Sundarbans.

Before you go

The monuments are scattered across a rural area and require some travel between them, and beyond the impressive main mosque, several are modest, so a guide and interest in Islamic history help; it is off the main tourist trail in the humid southwest. Restoration quality varies and some brickwork has been heavily repointed. Combined with the nearby Sundarbans, though, and as a remarkable, atmospheric relic of medieval Islamic Bengal crowned by the magnificent Sixty Dome Mosque, Bagerhat is a rewarding and important site.

Nearby

The city of Khulna and the Sundarbans mangroves are close by.