A lost 15th-century city of 360 mosques hidden in the Bangladeshi mangrove forests.
In short: Once a thriving mint town of the Bengal Sultanate, Bagerhat was reclaimed by vegetation for centuries. Today, this UNESCO World Heritage site reveals a unique architectural fusion of Bengali, Persian, and Arab styles, featuring hundreds of baked-brick monuments built by a Turkic governor who dedicated his life to the region.
Established in the 15th century under the governorship of the Turkic military officer Ulugh Khan Jahan, Bagerhat—historically known as Khalifatabad—served as a vital administrative and cultural hub. Khan Jahan, a Sufi, transformed the Sundarbans region into a planned township, complete with roads, bridges, and extensive water reservoirs like the Ghoradighi and Dargadighi tanks. The city’s rapid development and high concentration of mosques, numbering 360, suggest a swift conversion of the local population to Islam, facilitated by the influence of Muslim missionaries.
The architecture of Bagerhat, often termed the 'Khan Jahan Style,' is defined by its use of baked brick and distinctive structural elements, such as round corner towers and cambered cornices. The most iconic structure, the Sixty Dome Mosque, features 77 domes supported by 60 stone pillars. Despite its name, the mosque served multiple functions, including as a madrasa, an assembly hall, and the court of Khan Jahan Ali. The site’s preservation is a modern achievement; many structures were obscured by dense vegetation until their relatively recent discovery and subsequent restoration efforts, which began in earnest under the Archaeological Survey of British India in 1895.
The city is divided into two distinct zones separated by 6.5 kilometres, with the Sixty Dome Mosque in the west and the Mausoleum of Khan Jahan in the east. The latter, where the governor was interred following his death on 25 October 1459, remains a significant pilgrimage site. The buildings have faced environmental challenges, particularly from the saline soil and atmosphere, which caused significant deterioration of the brickwork and sulphate damage. UNESCO inscribed the site in 1983, recognizing it as an outstanding example of an architectural ensemble that illustrates a significant stage in human history, now set amidst the farmlands of southern Bangladesh.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Mosque City of Bagerhat
- Also: Wikidata — Mosque City of Bagerhat · CC0
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