Bagerhat District

Bagerhat District is an administrative district in southwestern Bangladesh within Khulna Division, notable for containing the medieval Mosque City of Bagerhat founded in the 15th century by Khan Jahan Ali.

The district contains a concentration of historic Islamic monuments including brick mosques, tombs and urban remains clustered around the town of Bagerhat; the best-known monument is the so-called Sixty Dome Mosque, a large multi-domed prayer hall. Other attractions include smaller village mosques, ruins set in flat delta landscape and local riverine scenery. Activities are primarily heritage visits and short local tours rather than large-scale tourism.

The medieval mosque complex and town were developed under the leadership of Khan Jahan Ali in the 15th century as a regional administrative and religious centre; the group of monuments survived in part owing to continuous local use and more recent conservation efforts. Over time the surrounding landscape and settlement pattern have remained predominantly agricultural on the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta plain.

The district sits in the lower Ganges-Brahmaputra delta in southwestern Bangladesh, on flat, low-lying land with numerous rivers and canals. The archaeological sites are clustered around Bagerhat town and lie within a broader rural and mangrove-influenced landscape close to the Sundarbans maritime forest.

• Conservation and access: Many monuments are built from local brick rather than stone, which affects conservation and means visits are best in the dry season when paths are easier to use.
• Visiting logistics: The archaeological complex is grouped around the town of Bagerhat and can be visited in a single day from Khulna or larger towns in the region.

What to See #

• Mosque City of Bagerhat (archaeological complex): A UNESCO World Heritage archaeological complex of 15th-century mosques, mausoleums and urban remains founded and developed under the Bengali Muslim saint and local ruler Khan Jahan Ali, centred on the town of Bagerhat.
• Sixty Dome Mosque and associated structures: The large brick mosque commonly called the Sixty Dome Mosque (Shait Gumbad) - a multi-bayed prayer hall with many domes - together with tombs, satras and ruined walls that form the core monuments of the site.